Song of Thunder
by Rosabell
Summary: On his way to meet friends Li was kidnapped for a sacrifice. In desperation, Li releases a power he did not know he had, but the ordeal left him blind, slightly deaf, and mute. Yue and Sakura unknowingly help his attacker while Li recovers with a stranger
1. Chapter 1

Song of Thunder

Chapter 1

The phone rang at a rather inconvenient time. Syaoran debated whether he should ignore it, or set the hard drive back down to pick it up. After it rang insistently for a while, (of course, phones are never insistent, but they usually seem that way) Syaoran sighed, and being too lazy to get up again, he simply used an old martial arts trick and sent a wave of qi over to the speaker. The energy punched the button, cutting a ring off abruptly.

" Moshi moshi?" Syaoran called, a little louder than normal.

" Ah, gomen nasai, Li-san¾"

" Oh boy, Yamazaki-san, is it the—"

" And are you talking on speakerphone?" Yamazaki asked.

Syaoran rolled his eyes. " Hai. I happen to be busy at the moment, no offense. What's the problem?"

" Need your help."

" No kidding."

" Well, you know that fifth question on the homework?"

" Which homework? Math?"

" Hai. Remember he gave us the formula sheet?"

" It's the quadratic formula."

" Do you have to solve for the square root?"

" What? You can't solve for the square root! It's irrational."

" So we leave it like that?"

" Hai." Syaoran pulled the ram out. He looked at it. " With the plus and minus signs."

" Alright. What did you get?"

" I don't have my homework in front of me."

" Well, I got the square root of negative sixty-two."

" You're kidding me, right?"

" Is that wrong?"

" That's not even a real number."

" It's not?"

" Ow," Syaoran exclaimed flatly, as his finger started bleeding, " Mama's bright idea. Put two systems in one computer."

" Two systems?" Yamazaki's voice was a little cut off by static. " Is that even compatible?"

" It's a freaking macintosh." Syaoran went to the kitchen to wash the cut. " Beats me."

" Why on earth did you buy a macintosh?"

" _I _did not buy it. My mother did. Insisted that macs are better since they spare me the effort of scanning for viruses every week. Of course, she does it at the expense of my files never being compatible with any other computer."

" Then why are you putting two systems in?"

" Because Mama insisted, that even though all the websites and forums declared that they have no clue how to do this, that macs can be partitioned into PC's."

" There's a huge bug with that. They can't do it yet."

" That's what I told her. Does she listen?" Syaoran found a band-aid and put it over his finger. " Now she's screwed up my computer."

" Where's your mother now?"

" In Hong Kong."

" She's telling you to do this all the way from China?"

" Always a mother's son." Syaoran replied dryly. " Anyway, you can't have a negative square root."

There was a pause. " Oh yeah…how did I get that?"

" Did you square the b?"

" I…oops, I put a negative in front of it."

" There we go." Syaoran closed the hard drive and reconnected everything.

" Say, are you going to the carnival?"

_How do people know these things?_

" Er…well, this thing might take me a while. I may or may not be in time for it."

" Oh, screw the computer. Come with us. Me and Hiriingaziwa and Chiharu and Rika and Noako. You have to help me win a teddy bear for Chiharu since she promised me earlier she's going to make me an Italian dish."

" What ever happened to getting poisoned by her food?"

" Are you kidding? Her cooking's the best. Tomoyo's not that bad either but Chiharu should be a master chef."

_Hmph._ Syaoran thought, a little envious. _Sakura would make me stuff, but only if I asked. She would not make it of her own accord unless she made a lot and then she would share with other people too, not just me._

" This said by the guy that's actually better than his girlfriend."

" That's not fair, and I could have had my phone on speaker too, you inconsiderate jerk."

" Yamazaki-san, school comes first for me."

" Now, what's that English saying? ' All food…' no wait, ' All play…' darn it!"

" 'No work and all play makes Yamazaki-san a dumb boy'?"

" Hai, that's right." A pause. Then, " Li!"

Syaoran allowed himself to grin very widely.

" You are a rascal. But really, come on. Eriol asked me especially to make sure you come because he needs your help to get something for Mizuki?"

" Why on earth would he need _my _help to get something for _his _girlfriend?"

" Because you are good at these weird stuff. And Mizuki's his girlfriend?"

" I'm just saying." Syaoran clicked the monitor. " Hai! It works! But it's missing the launcher."

Yamazaki paused on the other end.

" Or is it that you want to stay with Sakura? Because we're joining up, you know."

Syaoran felt his face grow hot. " Hey, I never said that." The computer beeped. " Darn it."

" Look, are you going to tell her or not?"

_Well, at least the world does not know._

" Yamazaki-san,"

" Look, Syaoran…I can call you Syaoran now, right? I mean, we've known each other for a while now."

" Sure." Syaoran shrugged. " Whatever you want."

" Look, Syaoran-kun, she's dense about this. But she does care about you, you know."

" No kidding." Beep. " She cares about everyone."

" Do I hear a hint of jealousy there?"

Syaoran glared at the screen. " What's your point, Yama…Takashi-san?"

" You have to take the first step with this girl, you know? I mean, I've known Sakura-chan longer than you. She's just that type of girl. She's had that crush on what's his name, Tsukishiro for ages and hasn't told him anything. Though now it seems she's not too interested in him anymore."

Figuring that the whole affair with Yukito was now over and stable, Syaoran decided to tell him." Don't go around announcing this…but that's because she told him."

" She did?!"

Syaoran glared at the screen again. A pop-up window said " Error -5097"

" Oh snap! I didn't know that. But you do know she's been harboring that crush for years."

" I know."

" Gee, gomen nasai, Syaoran-san. But that's…well, I'm guessing it didn't work out?"

" You don't see them holding hands or anything, do you?"

" Gee, never would have known. I mean, they've gone on dates before."

" Too much information." Syaoran cut him off.

" Well, that's a mood-killer. Gomen nasai, again, but uh, well, why don't we set it up so you can tell Sakura at the carnival?"

_After I told her? Setting up Sakura for…oh, not a good idea. Especially not for her._

" So that you can all laugh your butts off as she rejects me? I'm touched."

" Hey, just trying to help, you know. You don't have to be that stingy."

" Look, Takashi-san, I've tried, alright? Never worked out."

" How many times have you tried to tell her?"

" I lost count."

" Well, maybe this is the perfect opportunity."

" I give up."

" Nani?"

" I give up on this stupid computer." Syaoran slammed the table. " Know anyone good with computers?"

" Hai, you are."

" You know what I mean."

" Iie. Who told you to get a mac?"

" _I _didn't get a mac! My mother did!"

" Well, that's a bout of poor judgment. If you had a windows I could probably help you out there, but the only system that's crazier than a mac is a Linux."

" Glad to know I haven't hit the bottom yet."

" Well, anyways, this is good, kind of, since if you're giving up you're coming with us to the carnival?"

Syaoran sat there, staring at the blank screen. " Never mind. I don't give up."

" Oh come on! That computer will still be as messed up as it is when you get back."

" But I'd have less time to fiddle around with it."

" Don't you know that if you work too hard on this for too long your brain gets all mushed? Sometimes it's better if you take a break and then come back after a fresh start."

" Well then, if you really want me to come to the carnival with you guys how about you do my homework for me?"

" That's not what I meant. And I don't want you to come over _that _much. And I know that you don't mean that either because you're the most…boring person I've ever met."

" Arigatou."

" That's not what I meant either! You know what I mean! You're…you stick to the rules like glue."

Syaoran cocked an eyebrow. " That made zero sense."

" Ugh! Syaoran-san, you are sometimes really _really _annoying."

" I know."

" But come on. I do need your help. I may be slightly better at cooking most dishes than Chiharu but she's really good at Italian."

" Why the blazes do you want Italian? All they do is put cheese and sauce on it!"

" Spoken like a true ignorant. You have to taste it to believe it. Teramisu, my favorite."

" _Ti_ramisu."

" Heaven in your mouth."

" Chuck full of fat and cholesterol."

" Way to kill a mood, Syaoran-san!"

Syaoran allowed himself another wide grin. Phones were convenient this way.

" Ah well, I'm sure Chiharu will love you all the same."

" You are an inconsiderate jerk."

" Ooh, big words." Syaoran stood up. " I do need to get the homework done, and I've been hacking at the computer all afternoon. I'm heading to the library now."

" Library's closed, genius."

" Darn it." Syaoran sighed. " Just my luck."

" Just ours. Come to the carnival. Seriously, I've never had to work so hard to convince anyone to _go have some fun,_ kami-sama!"

Syaoran sighed. " Fine, I'll come with you guys."

" Hai!" Yamazaki exclaimed, followed by some cheers in the background. Syaoran immediately frowned.

" What the hell?"

" Uh…" Yamazaki laughed, " That was the comedy I have on the television. Hehe, how ironic."

Syaoran cocked an eyebrow. " Takashi-san…"

" Nani?"

" Who's there with you?"

" No one."

" Sure." Syaoran decided to drop it.

" Anyway, meet us at the gate to the park, hai?"

" Hai." Syaoran sent another wave of qi to turn the speaker off. He turned to the computer.

" Oh you," He muttered. " Why can't you just work and give me a break?"

He turned to fetch his coat.

oO

Sakura waved at Yamazaki, Eriol, and Chiharu as she spotted them at the gate.

" Konbonwa!" She called. " Who are you waiting for?"

" Li-san." Eriol replied. " Yamazaki-san finally persuaded him to come after about half an hour of arguing."

" It was not half an hour!" Yamazaki protested. " It took about…fifteen minutes."

" It was half an hour, of you pausing over that negative square root." Chiharu replied. " Face it, you're not that good."

" Bleh."

Sakura blushed. _Syaoran-kun is going to be here? _She struggled to stop herself from running away

Tomoyo smiled. " Can we wait with you?"

" Sure." Yamazaki laughed

The children chatted for a while, waiting for their friend to come and meet them. Half an hour passed, and no one arrived.

" What's taking so long?" Sakura asked, half glad he was not here, half worried.

" Maybe he went to the bathroom."

" Yamazaki!" Chiharu hit him hard.

" Maybe we should go in first, before the lines get too long."

Sakura looked at Eriol. Eriol's expression was blank, but something made Sakura feel that he was not happy with this idea.

" Hai." Chiharu, on the other hand, liked this idea. " I really want to try that ferris wheel over there."

" Come." Yamazaki led the way. The others followed.

_I hope Syaoran-kun is all right._ Sakura thought. Biting her lip in worry, she hurried after her friends.

They went through several different rides. It was a pretty big carnival, taking up basically all the space the park had to offer. They went through the haunted house and ate some corn dogs. Syaoran never showed up.

" Ugh, he stood me up!" Yamazaki exclaimed as they got off the merry-go-round.

" Thirty minutes of arguing, and you didn't even manage to get him to come." Chiharu giggled. " I totally won."

" Hai, hai," Yamazaki laughed, " I'll make you Mexican."

" Do you think we should call him?" Sakura asked.

Tomoyo was already taking out her phone and dialing. The group waited as they heard the ring.

" You've reached the voicemail of Li Syaoran." They heard Syaoran's voice say. " Please leave a message. Arigatou—" Tomoyo hung up.

" Hm." The group was thoughtfully quiet. Sakura decided to drop her embarrassment for the moment and took out her cell phone to dial Syaoran's number. That provided the same result.

" You think we should head over to his apartment and see what's up?" Yamazaki asked.

" Hai." It was the first time Eriol took the initiative. " I think that would be a good idea. Let us go then."

Sakura had a bad feeling about this entire affair.

oO

Syaoran had just left his apartment building. In fact, he had gotten as far as two blocks when he looked up from the sidewalk into the eyes of a young man.

Something about those eyes struck fear into Syaoran, who quickly lowered his own and slipped past. The world seemed to darken as he did so, and all of the sudden he could not move.

_What is this?_ Syaoran thought, frightened, as he tried to get his limbs to obey. He felt someone come up behind him.

" So you are the reason for all this commotion," He heard the man say, for it has to be the man. The world became so black he might as well be blind. Syaoran felt his breath quicken and tried to steady it to no avail. A slim cold hand circled his throat.

" We cannot have you know the directions before we are certain, can we," The man's voice sneered. The hand tightened and Syaoran tried to thrash, but he was paralyzed and he could not hold on to consciousness much longer…

Syaoran opened his eyes to find himself in darkness. The space he was in was tight and confining, and kept shaking as if it were moving.

_I'm in the backtrunk of some car._

Twisting, he realized that his wrists and feet were tied painfully together, and there was a gag in in his mouth. Heart pounding, he opened his eyes wide to make use of whatever light may come through the lid.

" The child is awake." He heard.

" No matter. He cannot see where we are going."

More frightened now, Syaoran pressed against the lid. It did not give, obviously. He tried to remove the gag but there was little room to maneuver his arms. He choked on his own saliva and tried to get his hands near his mouth, twisting his body awkwardly.

" Are you certain he is a Li?"

" The descendant of Clow Reed. It has to be him. He matches the description."

" He feels strange. His magic is not like the others."

" They did say he practices a different kind of magic, and he trained a lot in qigong."

" Qigong?"

" Hai."

The voices whispered more, but this time Syaoran could not hear over the rumbling of the car. He continued to struggle, but it was no use. The lid was locked and he could not free his wrists.

The car came to a stop. He heard the car doors open and shut, and the lid was released from the lock. It opened to reveal several figures, but it was too dark to make out how many. One of them reached down and hauled Syaoran out by his air. Syaoran grunted in pain as he landed on the dirt. Some of it got in his eyes, and he tried to blink them out, but another hand grabbed him painfully by the arm and dragged him across the ground. Syaoran looked up, and between the tears from the dirt and the shadowy figures he could make out a large shrine.

By the time they were inside Syaoran was bleeding and hurt. The room seemed large from the echoes of the shoes, but it was too dark to determine just how big.

" How long before it begins?" A female voice asked.

" Not long. Tie him to the wall there."

Once again Syaoran was hauled up and dragged across the floor. They untied his wrists, and he used this advantage to send a blast of metal qi into one. She staggered back with a grunt, but a chain wrapped itself around his wrist and secured it to the wall. Not deterred yet, Syaoran sent another blast of metal qi into the second attacker, but even though the man backed away from the blow, the same thing happened to that wrist.

" Kid knows his qigong, not bad." The woman coughed a little. " Hard, painful, and _cold._ What a pity, really."

They left his feet alone, and the gag.

In a burst of flame, the room was lit. It was a large hall, with embroidered tapestries lining the walls. Syaoran was blinded by the light for a moment, but when his vision cleared he saw that his abducters were all wearing oriental robes, with various shades of red. They formed a circle in the center of the hall and began to chant in a strange language.

Syaoran tried to find any weak links in either chain, but they seemed to be made of magic and were unyielding. He tried to break them with qi, but he was not strong enough. Outside the wind howled through the trees, as if bringing an omen. The hall darkened again, save for the red figures.

Fear tugging at his heart, Syaoran's eyes widened as he saw a pale red orb float from the center of the circle and slowly ascend to the ceiling. The abducters backed away as the orb began to glow and shimmer. Slowly it began to form a solid shape, and two blazing eyes opened at the top, followed by a wide, gaping mouth lined with sharp dagger-like teeth. Flames shot up from inside it and all around it, and the air began to grow hot as smoke lined the walls. It towered over Syaoran, nearly filling the great hall.

" All hail, the Fire demon!" One man shouted, and Syaoran recognized him to be the man that he bumped into earlier that evening. " Feast upon the gift we bring you!"

With a terrible roar, the creature stretched its long thick neck down at Syaoran, who struggled against the chains. The poor boy coughed and wheezed as the smoke entered his lungs. The great beast extended its claws and closed its grip around Syaoran's body. It pulled. Syaoran screamed in pain as the fires burned him and the chains held his arms back. He felt something within his core build up as he desperately tried to thrash, before it became bigger and bigger and was suddenly released.

With a great roar, the beast pulled back as white sparks fluttered up its arm and went through its whole being. It exploded in a bright light that blinded Syaoran and knocked him against the wall. Pain seared through him and he coughed up blood. He dropped to the ground, the chains clattering away from him.

Head and ears ringing, Syaoran could barely breathe. He was aware of the loud shouts and running steps on the temple floor. When he opened his eyes he could not see anything, but he sensed the aura of one of the men casting a spell and heard, though muffled, him shouting, " Kill the gaki!"

Syaoran sensed the auras of the sorcerers rushing toward him, and the buildup of power, ready to be unleashed to kill him. He had no idea how this all started or what the purpose of all this was, but he willed, despite being wounded and severely weakened, that strength he felt earlier that destroyed the beast, for he was certain that was what destroyed the fire demon just then. Slowly and reluctantly, the power grew within him, and before it could reach the intensity it had before, Syaoran pushed it out.

The temple shook, and Syaoran screamed as chunks of the structure began to fall and the world roared around him. He felt the auras of the sorcerers wink out of existence as the chunks of stone landed on them. The world quaked and seemed to shift all over, and Syaoran felt nausea roll over him like a wave. Pain took up his entire consciousness, before that, too, faded away into blissful nothing.

oO

" What's wrong?" Touya asked. " You're suddenly very jumpy."

" I can't help but feel something bad just happened." Yukito replied. " Or maybe it's the other me."

Touya paused. He was still very tired, but he stayed alert for Yukito's sake. " Is Sakura going to be all right?"

" I don't know." Yukito slipped from the table. " I sense her. She's…she's not where the source is."

" What source?"

" I don't know…I'm changing."

Even after the transformation though, Yue remained where he was. Touya was glaring at him.

" Don't you think that was a little risky, changing like that in public?"

Yue looked at him. Touya continued to glare.

" I have to go." The guardian told him.

" Be careful." Touya warned.

Yue took off. Touya allowed himself to slump over the table and doze.

Yue flew as fast as he could toward the disruption. There was a sense of urgency about this whole situation, and he was probably not as careful as he should, but his mind seemed to be taken over by this instinct to hurry and get there, or something horrible will happen, if not already.

It was a good distance away by air, which showed how powerful the magic had been. In the moonlight he saw smoke rising into the sky and caught the scent of something burning. It was a new ruin of a temple.

Diving down, Yue took in the damage. The entire structure had collapsed. He landed lightly on the ground and pondered on the sight before him. Did no one notice? But the temple was far enough from everything else. There was a dirt road that led up to it, but it did not seem to be used that often as grass and weeds grew over it, and the only reason Yue could tell it was a road was because of the car that was lying on its side a few meters away.

He hesitated because of the flames, and the heat that scorched his face, but after a while he sent a blast of wind which blew them out. He started making his way through the rubble, not certain what he was looking for, but searching all the same.

There were several corpses, burnt black till their features were completely unrecognizable. Yue looked around, wondering what kind of spell had caused such destruction. Perhaps he should go and warn Sakura about this, keep her on guard, but at the same time she had enough on her mind…

There was something moving though. Someone.

Yue cautiously approached the wheezing figure. The cloth had been scorched, like the others, but under Yue's fair light he could tell the cloth was red. A hood covered the face, and Yue lifted it. It was a young man with startling deep eyes. Yue could swear they were black.

The man looked up at Yue, still struggling to breathe. Blood poured from the side of his head into his eyes and the man winced at the sting. Yue wondered what he should do. He had no idea if the man had been the cause of all this, or the victim.

Deciding to take his chances, Yue lifted the man and took off without bothering to look through more of the rubble.


	2. Chapter 2

Song of Thunder

Chapter 2

" Of course he is not happy." Ritsuko remarked, stepping over a root. " He hates Japan."

" I never said I hated Japan." Came the flat reply. He was originally before her, but the answer came from behind her. Somehow they must have shifted positions in the darkness.

" You might as well. We do not play games of words here. You hate Japan because of what they did to your mother. It is obvious to us all."

" Iie, I _dislike_ Japan, because I despise their culture."

" Hardly matters." Ritsuko leaned back. " But we are here, after all. What is the trouble?"

" Firespeakers."

There was a long pause.

" Hai, we know. You hate Japan."

" I was not going to say that."

" You might as well. And for your information they were not all Japanese, so you can stuff your racism."

" For the record, I was not going to say that, and you can stop trying to predict what I am thinking. What did the Firespeakers do, Ichiro-san?"  
" They released the fire demon for a while."

Ritsuko cursed. " What on earth do you mean, _for a while?_"

" They had a Li member with them as sacrifice. Somehow the demon was destroyed. Along with the temple and virtually all the Firespeakers that did the summoning."

" Ugh, idiot Japanese."

" There you go again, Chul-kun. And they were not all Japanese."

" Well," Ichiro paused, " _They _were, but that is hardly the point."

" They had a Li as a sacrifice?" Chul asked. The twigs crunched under his feet. " I smell the smoke already. What did they intend to do?"

" Well, obviously they wanted to feed him to the fire demon." Ichiro replied. " The boy did something though."

" You think it was the boy?"

" Well, it was not the demon. Nor was it the Card Mistress, she was not there. The demon is gone now. As you can see, we cannot sense its presence."

" Good riddance."

" Too bad they did not take that Li brat with them."

" Chul-kun, you have issues."

A melody beeped from Ritsuko's purse. She stopped as they climbed and took it out.

" Oh, Kami-sama, who would call me at this hour?" She pressed the button. " Moshi moshi?"

" We have a problem." Said a man on the other line.

" I know." Ritsuko remarked flatly. " A bunch of Firespeakers tried to raise a demon."

The man cursed.

" That what Watanabe-san called you for?"

" Hai."

" Oh great. Is anyone else there with you?"

" Hai, Chul-kun."

" Hm. We need one of you over here."

" Why?"

" Because a couple of earthspeakers got into a fight and if you don't come over Japan will experience a tsunami."

" For the love of—where is this? And why the blazes are they causing an earthquake around here? Japan has enough earthquakes."

" They are Arabs. Earth is all they had to be concerned with."

" Kami-sama. I'll go. For all I know Chul-kun might actually create a…create one without their help." Ritsuko rolled her eyes. " Where are you?"

" Toshima. Under."

" You are _under _Toshima? You get signals there? How does your cell phone work?"

" Air bubble. I'm at the eastern tip. Hurry up."

Chul looked at her. " Leaving?" He asked dryly.

" Hai." Ritsuko sighed. " You take care of this."

With a shimmer her body turned into water and then evaporated into mist, drifting away.

Chul sighed. " What exactly are we dealing with here?" He asked. " If the fire demon has been banished then what are we doing here?"

" We are looking for the Li."

Chul rolled his eyes. " Which Li is it?"

" The young one. Li Xiaolang."

" Oh him." Chul followed Ichiro impatiently. " Why? He dealt with the fire demon, did he not?"

" You expect a ten-year-old to come out of that battle unscathed?"

" So? Let someone else help him. Pompous Li idiots, they are even worse than the Japanese."

Unlike Ritsuko, Ichiro did not comment.

" He must have bodyguards, being so rich. They will come and find him."

" He's here alone, Park-san."

" What do you mean?"

" He's here alone. There's no one in Japan with him. The rest of the family is in Hong Kong."

" Well, that's not very smart."

" Iie, but that is how things are. We're here."

A graveyard of a temple lay before them.

" You expect me to search through all this rubble?"

" It's not hard for a waterspeaker."

" Iie, still, it's annoying having to transform." Chul glared at Ichiro. " What am I looking for? The brat?"

" Hai. Try to take him out of there. I'll set up a barrier so no one else notices. It's very unlikely people will be here, but one does not take chances."

" Iie." Chul frowned, before transforming as Ritsuko had.

oO

Syaoran woke to pain. He could not move and he felt like his head and chest had been crushed. There was no sound and all was still.

He tried to open his eyes but it did not seem to work. Giving up, he tried to remember what happened.

Was he not supposed to be at the carnival? Yamazaki—no, Takashi had bugged him into it. He was heading out…

What happened then?

Mind muddled, and completely exhausted, Syaoran tried to get up again. As expected, he could not even move his head. He choked on something coppery and coughed, sending spasms of pain throughout his body at the sudden movement. _Bad idea. No coughing for now._

Perhaps he should just lie still for a while and rest.

_No..._something told him this was a bad idea. If he simply gave up…he would die.

_How badly hurt am I?_

This time he managed to move his hand, and he heard the metalic clang of chains against rock. _What…?_

Then he remembered.

Shuddering in terror, Syaoran tried to move again. His body was too weak to obey. Panic rose in him as some instinct told him that he had to get out, he had to get as far away from wherever he was as possible, or else…

Something cold blew past, and Syaoran gasped, chilled. His muffled senses felt something like an aura, but he was too weak and hurt to be certain. Out of reflex though, he pushed with qi, and ended up hurting his core. Coughing up blood, Syaoran thought he was going to die. _No using qi when your qi is too low._ Of course, he knew that. Reflexes would be reflexes, however.

His throat hurt and felt dry and scratchy. Syaoran swallowed some of the blood, grimacing. He was cold, and in pain. The world seemed to spin around him and under him, he seemed to be spinning, his head hurt and he felt dizzy and miserable.

He felt the ground shake a little. What was going on? There was someone there! Syaoran's breathing quickened slightly, ignoring the pain in his lungs. He had to get out of here before he was captured again, and go warn…warn who again? They were after…they were after the Li's…why were they after…

Then his mind froze as he felt a hand touch his neck.

oO

" You sure it was a good idea to bring him here and not a hospital?"

" He is a sorcerer. I doubt he could explain it to the hospital."

" But that's not our problem is it? I mean, whatever he was doing,"

" For all we know, he could have merely been a victim of some disaster." Yukito dipped the cloth back into the water, soaking it.

Touya yawned. It was not because he did not care, he was actually quite worried about the situation, but he was very _very _tired.

Yukito looked up, noticing.

" Say, listen, why don't you go take a shower and get some rest. I'll take care of this guy."

" You sure?"

" To-ya, I'm not going to break anything."

" I know." Touya folded his arms. " But this is my house and I am sort of the host. Besides, what if this guy ends up being dangerous?"

" I can take care of myself. And you look exhausted. You still have to recover from…" Yukito fell silent.

" Fine, fine," Touya yawned again, then glared at the man, irritated at himself for being so weak. " So glad Otou-san is not home. Careful, don't wake the kaijuu."

" I'll handle that. You go get some rest."

" You call if something goes wrong."

" _Go to bed._" Yukito emphasized. He reinforced this order with the best glare he could muster, which was not very threatening but was enough to get Touya upstairs.

Yukito remained standing until he heard the sound of the shower. Then he knelt by the sofa where the young man lay and cleaned away some more of the blood. As he reached for the first aid kit, he sensed his other self whispering in worry and he changed.

Yue looked up to find Kero, in a hot bit of temper.

" I can't believe she didn't let me go with." Kero stared at the young man, " But who's he?"

" You honestly did not sense anything earlier?" Yue demanded.

" I was playing videogames until Sakura came back." Kero replied. " Then I went to sleep."

Yue stared. " You did not sense anything."

" Well, I did, but then I sensed you." Kero shrugged. " I figured you were taking care of it, and I saw no reason to leave Sakura's room."

Seeing his point, Yue dropped the subject. " This man, can you tell what kind of magic he practices?"

" Sun magic, probably. Though, it's hotter than usual." Kero hovered over the unconscious sorcerer. " A lot more fire to it. I don't recognize it at all. Why?"

" Because I found him at a temple that stood just a few hours before."

" What do you mean?"

" Now it is in ruins."

Kero paused. " Oh."

They remained in contemplative silence. The man groaned a little, but did not wake.

" They destroyed a temple." Yue added.

" They?"

" There were more. He was the only survivor I found."

" Kami-sama."

" Hai."

The shower silenced, and they could hear Touya stepping out of the tub.

" Were the others dressed like this guy?"

" I could not tell. They were burnt black."

Kero frowned. " I see. We keep an eye on this guy though, in case he wakes."

" I should have taken him to Yukito's house."

" Maybe, but this is not that bad either. If his folks were strong enough to destroy a whole temple, it might not be wise to face him alone when he wakes." Kero hovered. " I'll go get the cards and form a shield in Sakura's room, just in case. If this guy wakes up and goes crazy, give us a yell and try to lure him outside."

" Hai." Yue nodded. Kero went upstairs, back into Sakura's room. As her door closed Touya stepped out.

" You're going to be all right down there?" Touya whispered, careful not to wake his sister.

Yue gave him a glare.

Despite his weariness, Touya smirked. " You're so much like Yuki."

Yue dropped the glare in favor of giving him a slightly bemused and bashful look. Touya did not stay to see it, for he turned around and entered his own room.

Yue turned his head and studied the wounded sorcerer, feeling uneasy but resigned.

oO

Despite telling Sakura to simply wait until morning and not worry about it that night, Eriol was very agitated when he came home.

" Carnival not good?" Spinel asked.

" No, it's not that." Eriol sat down. " It's Li."

" The kid? What about him?"

" He wasn't there." Eriol paced, " And he wasn't answering his phone, plus he…I feel like something has happened to him."

" What could happen? It's not like any trouble in Tomoeda these days is caused by anyone other than you."

" And we all went to his apartment. He was not at home either. Which means he came out."

" So? Maybe he stood you up."

" Li would not do that. If he really had not planned on coming he would have said so. We all heard him through Yamazaki's phone. He was definitely coming."

" How do you know? He's rude enough. This wouldn't be a change for him."

" He's rude sometimes, but not in this way. He's not that…not that _sly._"

" Hm."

Sighing, Eriol headed over to the desk and picked up the phone and dialed.

" You have the kid's phone number memorized?" Spinel uttered in disbelief.

Eriol ignored him. " Come on, Li-san, pick up."

_" You've reached the voicemail of—" _Eriol hung up violently.

Nakuru looked at him curiously. " Do you want us to go out and find him?

Eriol was about to say yes, but it did not make sense because where would they start? And he remembered his own advice to Sakura. Syaoran could take care of himself, and they would know for certain if he needed any help the next morning. At least Sakura would. Eriol is packing up tomorrow and leaving for England.

" Iie." He finally shook his head. " Let's go to bed. It's a big day tomorrow."

A few hours later the guardians felt a disruption in the magical atmosphere. Eriol slept on, however, and he was exhausted, so the guardians did not wake him, nor did they leave the mansion. After all, things could be taken care of in the morning…

oO

The boy's eyes were wide open and dilated, and at first Chul could not tell if he was breathing. He pressed his fingers to the boy's pulse at the child's neck. At first he could not even find it.

" Kid's alive!" He yelled to Ichiro. " Can you hear me?"

" Hai!" Ichiro answered. " You think you can take him out?"

" If I kill him and then bring him _through _the rubble he's buried in, sure." Chul responded sarcastically. " I doubt that's what you want though."

" Iie. How badly hurt is he?"

" Why don't you bring the sun up so I can see better?"

" Well, try to be careful!"

" Try to be careful," Chul muttered under his breath, " For the sake of a Chinese brat with a filthy-rich Chinese family."

He grabbed the boy roughly by the shoulder, but to his surprise the boy flung his arm out with a suddenly energy and a blast of white sparks shot from the child's fingertips, blasting Chul into the rubble walls of the cavern. Chul changed into water, splashing unharmed onto the stone, before reforming.

" Ugh!" He shouted. " What kind of Chinese stunt was that?"

" What happened?" Ichiro asked.

The boy was still again. Chul rubbed his chest, wincing at the burn and numbness. " Ow! He shot me with…with some kind of electricity!"

Ichiro was silent for a moment. " Electricity?"

" Hai!" Chul looked up in the darkness, irritated. " Stupid Chinese bastards!"

" Watch that tongue. And careful with the kid!"

" Careful with the kid, ugh," Chul grumbled. " I don't need to be careful with this brat. He can take care fo himself just fine." With that, he heaved the boy roughly up.

The boy gasped in pain, and in response threw another spark at Chul, this time weaker. Chul shook the child.

" Enough with it!" He spat at the boy. " Idiot doesn't even know what's good for him." Holding the boy by the collar with one hand, he used his other hand to shoot a torrent of water, moving the rubble aside. Moonlight spilled into the cavern, and Chul looked down. The boy's cheeks glistened as blood spilled from his mouth. The child trembled.

" Easy with the kid!" Ichiro emphasized. " You don't know how hurt he is."

" Oh, for god's sake," Chul rolled his eyes, before sliding his other arm under the boy's legs and lifting the child up. He jumped, aided by the water that pushed him up, and landed lightly in front of Ichiro.

At the jarring, more sparks appeared around the boy's hands and mouth, though this time Chul was not shocked again. He held the boy out to Ichiro. " Here, I got him."

Ichiro did not take the boy. " Good. We head down now."

" I am not going to carry this boy all the way back to Tomoeda."

" Yes you will, if you know what's good for you. Besides, I am an old man. I cannot carry this child much better than you."

Chul took a deep breath. " Today was just not my day, was it?"  
" Perhaps not."

Chul jarred the boy roughly. More sparks flew out, startling Ichiro.

" Easy there, Park-san. And those were the electricity things you were talking about?"

" Hai. Though they are much weaker now."

" Hm." Ichiro remarked thoughtfully. " Make sure you don't be too rough on him. I think those sparks come out whenever he's hurt."

" Nani?" Chul stared at the man incredulously. Ichiro turned away and started heading back into the woods. " I have to be _careful_ with this kid all the way back? Pray tell, if Ritsuko were the one to stay, would you make her carry the boy?"

" Of course not."

" I _knew _it—"

" Because she would carry the child without me saying so." Ichiro cut him off. " The boy is ten years old. Surely he is not that heavy."

No, the child was not that heavy. But Chul hated—

" And you are a strong young man anyway. Do treat him nicely. He is only a child, no matter his origin."

Chul looked up at the heavens and glared. He then reluctantly stepped over the dirt and sand to follow after the older sorcerer.

" Do all Chinese brats shoot sparks out of their fingers and teeth whenever someone pinches them?"

" You are not just pinching him, he might have bone fractures and handle him carefully, for the last time. And iie, they do not shoot sparks out of their fingers and _teeth._"

" Then what is this, then?"

" I honestly have no clue. Well I do, but it makes no sense, so I do not."

Chul scowled at his back. " What are you talking about? Just say it already. What are you thinking, old man?"

" Well, note how firespeakers shoot flames out of their hands and mouth?"

" You think he's also a firespeaker?"

" Well, he's not shooting flames."

" Nani???" Chul's scowl deepened. " What then? He's an electricityspeaker? First of all, there's no such thing. That makes no sense. Electricity isn't even an element in magic."

" Which is why I don't know, Park-san."

Chul growled loudly in exasperation.

They headed down to the road where the car was. Chul set the boy in the back seat and got onto the passenger's side. Ichiro did not comment, getting into the driver's seat and starting the car. They drove down the hill.

" What are we going to do with the brat? Send him to a hospital?"

" Iie, that would not be wise. There is no way we can explain how he came to be in this condition without exposing magic."

" Or sound like we're nuts."

" Has the boy made a sound since you got him out?"

Chul paused. " Iie." He realized. " Silent as a mouse, that kid's been."

" I'm taking him to my mansion. You have to stay with him tonight."

" Nani? Why me?"

" Because, I have to leave."

Chul glared. " Explain."

" Well, just because firespeakers ransacked a temple, does not mean I can shirk my duties. I was supposed to be in San Diego and I have to catch the plane in three hours."

" You did not think of this before you took us on that hike?"

" Obviously, firespeakers were higher on my priority list, but now that most of them appear to be dead and you are here, I have to get going."

" I don't believe this. Are all Japanese so irrational?"

Ichiro did not answer him.

About twenty minutes later they arrived in front of the mansion. Ichiro drove in through the gate.

" Be careful with the boy," He told Chul, " Don't let your personal judgments get in the matter. Firespeakers would not feed just anyone to the fire demon, the boy must be special in some way."

" He's a Li."

" That may be it, but as you can see, the boy is strange even for a Li." The child was still sparking light from his fingers, though they were spasmic, as if the child was undergoing a seizure of some sort. " Figure out where he's hurt and if you're not going to treat him, be mindful of it."

The two men got out of the car. Ichiro grabbed his luggage from the trunk of the car and hurried out the gate while Chul took the child out.

The younger man glared at the boy. " You really complicate things." He said, and lifted the child up so he could better carry him. Taking out his keys, he opened the door to the mansion and went inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Song of Thunder

Chapter 3

Sakura had been nervous about meeting Syaoran in class the next day, after he told her he loved her, but the fact that the boy was absent made her even more worried. She wondered if this was a coincidence, or if it had something to do with the wounded man in the living room Yue was treating when she woke up that morning. He had apparently been in his true form for the entire night, watching over the man, or more like keeping an eye on him. Touya seemed to be edgy too, and told her when she came down not to disturb the man and just go to school.

More than a little alarmed, Sakura had arrived to class in a state of distress, and Syaoran's absence only served to increase that.

During lunch Sakura once again summoned the nerve to call Syaoran. She only got his voicemail.

" Should we tell Hiiragizawa-san?" Tomoyo asked, sensing her friend's state of mind. " Maybe…maybe he could help?"

" Eriol-kun is packing to go to England…"  
" Hai, but maybe he can spare a few minutes to tell you how to find Li-kun?"

Sakura sighed. " Fine, I'll call him." She dialed.

Spinel answered the phone.

" It's Sakura," He called behind him in English. Sakura heard shuffling sounds and Eriol's voice came up.

" Konnichiwa, Sakura-san."

" Eriol-kun, Syaoran-kun wasn't in school today, and…I can't seem to reach him."

There was a heavy silence on the other line. Then, Sakura heard Eriol talking to someone else, his voice muffled as if he was covering the phone with his hand.

" Sakura-san, I can't help you with this, but I fear something awful has happened—you didn't see fit to tell me this last night?" He was talking to other people again, for several voices in the background answered him. He then turned back. " After school, go to his apartment and see if you can find any clues as to where he went. Take Kero and Yue with you."

" Yue's with this guy at the house." Sakura protested. " He seems to be very adamant about watching him."

There was another pause. " What guy?" Eriol asked.

" This man, he was all wounded, and Oni-chan told me not to worry about it—"

" Cast the Sleep over him." Eriol replied. " Make sure he does not wake and take Yue with you. Have you identified who this man is?"

" Iie…Oni-chan just told me to go to school—"

" Be careful of this man." Eriol warned. " Go find Li, quickly! If you do not find him, when you go back to the house, if the man wakes make sure to be on your guard and figure out who he is and what happened to him. Yue would know if he's lying. I have to continue packing, I'm very sorry, Sakura-san. When school ends make sure you head over to Li's apartment first and go inside. You can use your key to unlock his door, and check to see if there were any clues as to his whereabouts."

" Hai." Sakura nodded. Eriol hung up.

Sakura looked at Tomoyo. " We're heading over to Syaoran-kun's apartment after school."

Tomoyo nodded, equally worried. " Hai."

Sakura sighed. _Syaoran-kun…I hope you're all right…I hope nothing bad has happened to you…I hope you're just asleep or something and couldn't hear the phone…_

Somehow she knew that was not the case.

oO

It had been an restless night for Syaoran.

He could not hear anything, could not see anything, and when the hand that cleaned his wounds was too harsh, he could not scream.

He was not aware of the energy sparks at his fingers and around his mouth, only that his energy was draining away. He was terrified but too weak to run, and the glare and the blast from the explosion at the temple had taken his sight and hearing. Miserable and in pain, Syaoran resigned to the rough hand. He was unable to fall asleep when the hand finally left him alone.

His magical senses were muddled as well. Whatever he did that saved him from the fire demon dulled his senses so he could not tell if the person cleaning his wounds had been a sorcerer or not. Nor could he sense Sakura, like he had before, or her cards. He felt very alone, without means to reach out to seek comfort.

Was he at a hospital? It did not seem like it. And what time was it? How much time had passed? It seemed like years…

The hand returned. Syaoran grabbed it. The hand tugged, trying to tug away, and Syaoran held on with all his strength. He was weak, and his grip was feeble, but he managed to keep the hand there.

Finally the hand stopped.

He felt the hand. It was a man's hand, definitely, hard and strong. Syaoran opened his mouth to ask who he was, but even though he was deaf he knew no words came out. His throat was not responding.

_The smoke…burned the throat…_

He shut his mouth and blinked. Tears escaped from the corners of his eyes.

Chul sighed upon seeing that, his bitterness giving way to pity. His hand felt numb from the light shocks coming from the boy's fingers, but they were light and pathetic so he could ignore them for now. He wiped the tears from the boy's temple and took his hand, spreading the fingers out. The boy blinked and waited as Chul decided what to write on the boy's palm to communicate to him.

_Safe._ He wrote on the palm. The child's hand twitched, then settled. The boy swallowed. Chul wondered what else he should write.

_Maybe your name._

He wrote his name in Chinese characters. The boy frowned, not understanding, and Chul placed the palm over his own heart. The boy's eyes flickered in understanding.

_Sorcerer. Waterspeaker._

Relaxing, the child's hands stopped sparking. Chul stood up, a little angry at letting himself go soft. He headed toward the phone and dialed.

" Moshi moshi?"  
" Ritsuko, where on earth are you?"

" I'm with the earthspeakers. Give me a break."

" I've been stuck with the kid all night!"

" Ishimatte…you got the kid?"

" Hai! Where were you for the past twelve hours?"

" Trying to mediate! Kami-sama, what's your problem anyway?"

" You weren't shocked about forty times while trying to clean up his wounds!"

" Hah?"

" Kid spews electricity from his fingers. It's ridiculous!"

" He does what? That's not normal."

" You bet it is not. I really want to get home now, thank you very much! When are you coming back?"

" I can't right now. Look, I can't talk long. The earthspeakers are quarreling with the windspeakers and it is all I could do to prevent a disaster from occurring—he's just a ten-year-old boy. You can handle him!"

_True._ Chul frowned nonetheless. " I admit it. I hate the Chinese."

" You do not have to admit it. You did that a long time ago. Stop whining." Ritsuko hung up.

" I do not whine." Chul growled, slamming the phone back to its receiver. For once he was glad the kid was deaf. The boy was not alarmed by his behavior. However, the child was starting to writhe in pain again. Chul sighed, resigning himself to heading over and taking the boy's hand. This time no spark lit. The boy trusted him.

_He has to._ Chul thought morosely. _He has no other choice._

Sending a warm wave of healing to the boy, he once again washed the boy's skin. The boy had been sweating.

" What the blazes am I supposed to do with you?" He sighed. _I suck at healing._

The child had finally fallen asleep.

oO

The phone rang.

" I'll go pick it up." Eriol hurried over to the desk. " Moshi moshi?"

" Hey, Eriol." A friendly voice greeted in English.

" Ichiro!" Eriol grinned. " I have not heard from you for ages. How are you?"

" I'm in San Diego. You never told me you were in Tomoeda! I was just there last night."

" Oh…I had business in Tomoeda—"

" That Kinomoto girl, yes? No worries. I understand, you had to keep your presence secret."  
" Well, yes." Eriol smiled. " I'm packing up to go back to England. What are you doing in San Diego?"

" Friend of mine needed help. You're going back to England? So soon?"

" Yes. My business here is done. Maybe when you finish helping your friend you could drop by and have some tea and biscuits?"

" Love to, Eriol. Though I need to tell you something—last night a group of firespeakers were summoning a fire demon in a temple several kilometers outside Tomoeda. They were using one of your descendants as a sacrifice."

Eriol felt his heart drop. " _What?!_"

" The kid somehow destroyed the monster, and everyone who was summoning it." Ichiro went on. " I would have called you last night if I had known you were in Japan. God, the direction things take! But the kid was badly wounded, and I had Park take him to my mansion, if you want to make time to go over there."

" I'm really busy here, I really have to catch my flight. And I'm sure Sakura would be able to settle things. How badly was he hurt?" Eriol asked despite himself.

" Think he's gone mute. Kid hasn't made a sound when we took him back, and he kept sprouting these electric sparks from his fingertips. Never seen anything like it, except with firespeakers, but they can't produce electricity like that. I suspect that's what saved the kid from the beast, but the boy is drained, obviously. And he looked pretty beaten up, though it was dark last night."

Troubled, Eriol wondered if the man Sakura had in her house had anything to do with this. He was glad he gave Sakura the advice that he did.

" Ugh, I have to go back to England,"

" Get that Card Mistress to look after the boy."

" Where is he again?"  
" At my mansion."

" Where the blazes is your mansion?"

" Oh no, there's that spell on the house…I forgot about that."

" You forgot about a spell on your house that happens to ward away anyone who does not know what it looks like."

" Listen, it's been a long time since I had to show anyone the house. What you can do is give the Card Mistress the phone number to Park."

" Park?"

" Yes, he's the waterspeaker I was talking about. He's not so good at healing though, so don't expect the kid to be up and about." Ichiro gave Eriol the phone number. " Oh, by the way, don't mention you're British. He's the most racist guy I've ever met."

" You're letting a racist take care of my descendant?"

" I had no choice! I had to catch the flight. Besides, Ritsuko spent more time with him, and if she could tolerate his remarks there must be something trustworthy about this guy. I got to go, my line will cut off because I have no money in my calling card."

" Bye then." Eriol hung up. " Blast it all."

" What is it?" Nakuru asked. " What did Ichiro say? And who's the racist taking care of your descendant?"

Eriol ignored her and dialed the number Ichiro gave him. The tone rang a few times, before a man picked up.

" Moshi moshi,"  
" This is Eriol. I am calling for my friend." Eriol wondered how he was supposed to deal with a person who hates the British. " I was told he was under your care."

" Oh, it's _you!_"

This was said with such finality and contempt that Eriol figured he might as well give up before he started.

" You take the Chinese brat then! He is _your _descendant after all."

_Hm. Ichiro neglected to warn me not to tell him my name. Perhaps Ichiro did not know._

" I'm leaving for England within several hours, Park-san. I have a friend here who is worried about him. Is it possible for you to bring him out of the house to this address?"

" I can't take him out of the house." Chul paused. " He's badly hurt. And the kid is deaf, blind, and mute. If I take him out of the house who knows what he'd do in panic."

Eriol groaned mentally. They should have gone after him during the carnival.

" You are a waterspeaker?"

" Hai."

" Do you think you can leave him for now and show us what the house looks like?"

" Oh, right, that spell." Chul was thoughtful. " Where should we meet?"

" You will not meet me. I have too many things to do. There is Kinomoto Sakura, the Card Mistress. You should be able to sense her aura. If not, one of the guardians."

" Am I just supposed to go up to her and show her?"

" Iie, she will find you as well. I am calling her right after we hang up." Eriol replied. " Will you do this for us? So we can find the house?"

Chul hesitated. " Fine, Penguin Park in Tomoeda?"

Eriol smiled. " Arigatou, Park-san." He hung up and frowned.

Spinel looked at him. " What's wrong?"  
" Blinded, deafened, and muted." Eriol looked at Spinel. " I am seriously contemplating on postponing my return."

" Poor child." Kaho remarked.

Eriol ran his fingers through his hair. His mind felt almost numb with worry as he realized what the boy had to endure the past night, and was still enduring. The fire demon was a powerful thing, a concentrated form of the firespeakers that required a sorcerer's blood to connect to the real world. Once released it was a monstrous thing, and once it connects to the living world it could wreak destruction beyond imagination.

How terrified Syaoran must have been.

If the firespeakers were acting up, that means that there was trouble afoot, which may mean that Sakura needs his counsel, if not more. Eriol looked at Nakuru, decision made.

" Unpack everything. We're staying in Tomoeda."  
" You sure?"  
" Firespeakers, Kaho-san." Eriol picked up the phone and dialed. While the tone rang he kept talking. " They released a fire demon last night and wanted to use Li as a sacrifice."

Nakuru cursed in English while everyone suddenly got up and started unpacking.

" Why did they use Li?" Spinel asked.  
" He is a sorcerer, and apparently from what Ichiro-san told me, a rather powerful one."

" What did the kid do? He's not dead, is he?" Nakuru asked.

" _This is Kinomoto Sakura! You've reached her voicemail. Leave a message and I_—" Eriol hung up.

" What a time not to answer the phone!" Eriol muttered. " And I have never seen his house."

" Is there no way to get past the warding spell?" Kaho asked.

" Not that I know of." Eriol redialed. " Did she put her cell phone on silent?"

" In all the years you've known Ichiro-san you've never seen his house?"  
" I wasn't in Japan long enough."

" _This is Kinomoto Sakura—"_ Eriol groaned, and decided to leave her a message.

oO

Sakura came home while Tomoyo waited outside the house, taking out her cell phone to recharge it. The young man was awake, making the girl very nervous. There was something very creepy about his eyes. They were so dark and black and piercing.

She waved nervously at him, and he did not respond. Feeling embarrassed and awkward, Sakura saw her brother in the kitchen and decided to leave her brother to host this strange guest. Or better yet, keep him distracted so that she could use the Sleep on him.

Shut the door, release the key, take out the card, cast the spell, follow it down to make sure neither her brother nor the man noticed the little sprite sprinkling the dust over him, tuck the card away, hurry downstairs—

" Hey, kaijuu, where are you going?"

" Out, be right back,"

" Don't you have homework to do?"  
" Hai, but I'll be quick." _At least I hope so—_

She left her cell phone on the desk in the living room and was about to head out when she realized she forgot to bring her guardians along.

" Hey, Oni-chan, where is—"

" Yuki? He stayed a little after to talk to a teacher. Should be here about—"

" Hey," Yukito opened the door, " You guys left the door unlocked."

Sakura smiled nervously at him. " I need you to do me a huge favor."

Yukito stared, but she was heading upstairs to grab Kero.

The pale boy looked at Touya. " What's going on?" He asked.

Touya shrugged.

Yukito looked at the young man on the sofa and something told him the situation was not good at all.

Sakura came back down, carrying Kero in her hands. Yukito blinked.

" What's going on?"

" Just come," Sakura was too distressed to dawdle much longer. She put on her shoes and opened the door.

Yukito followed, baffled. Behind them, despite the efforts of the Sleep card, the sorcerer opened his eyes.

" Eriol-kun told me to head over to his apartment to look for clues." Sakura told Yukito.

" Whose apartment?"  
" Syaoran-kun."

" Did the kid actually get himself in trouble?" Kero asked.

" He wasn't in school today." Tomoyo answered.

" Maybe he was sick."  
" He's not answering his phone." Sakura started running a little.

" Why do you need us to follow you?" Kero asked. " You think there's a threat?"  
" Eriol-kun thinks so." Sakura replied. " He told me to cast Sleep over that man in the living room, and when he wakes to question him with Yue present."

" Something must be really wrong." Somewhere along the way Yukito had transformed. " If he is being this cautious and warning you to do the same,"

" I have a bad feeling too." Sakura hurried.

They reached the building and rang the bell before entering the lobby, just to be certain Syaoran was not at home. Then they went up to his apartment.

The computer had apparently been on all night. When Sakura moved the mouse the computer remained asleep. It was obvious from the various disks, that the last thing Syaoran had been doing was fixing his computer.

" This apartment screams of a neat freak." Kero commented.

Sakura did not bother to scold him. " His robes are still in the closet…and the other stuff…" She looked at the lasin board and the lace that she knew could turn into a sword.

" I doubt he went out expecting to cast any magic spells." Yue pointed out. " This does not tell us where he went."

" Maybe if we…if I use the Return card?" Sakura asked.

" Ah…I don't know. Your magic has grown but I don't know if it's a good idea to test it _that _far. That card takes a lot out of you." Kero scratched his head.

" I'm really worried." Sakura insisted.

oO

Touya came out of the kitchen and started at the empty sofa.

" What the—" Before he could react the young man pressed a pressure point at his neck. Touya slumped down to the floor, unconscious.

" Gomen nasai." The man knelt down to say. " You have been kind, but I have errands."

He stood up. Sakura's cell phone rang. The man hesitated, before picking up the phone. He did not answer it though, merely looked to see who was calling.

" Hiiragizawa Eriol…" He read. " Interesting."

Flames flared from his fingers and he used the magic to repair his robes, which had been frayed and burned and torn in many places. The phone stopped ringing and he looked over at the teen, wondering if he should place the boy on the sofa where it was more natural. Perhaps the boy would even forget what had happened.

The phone started ringing again. The man looked. It was the same person. He moved over to drag the tall boy's body to the sofa. Adjusting him so that it seemed he had dropped down for a nap, the young man began using smoke to create a vapor that would make any who breathed it forget about him. The phone stopped ringing.

Once done, the phone made a strange sound. Curious, the firespeaker headed over to look. On the screen, it said, " 1 Voice Message".

He pressed the button to listen to it.

_" Sakura-san, this is Eriol. I just received a call from a friend of mine. He knows where Li-san is. Go to Penguin Park and look for a man named Park. He is a waterspeaker, and he will take you to Li. And be careful of the man you have at the house. He might be one of the firespeakers, and they're the ones who hurt Li. Just…just be careful, Sakura-san. I also might stay in Tomoeda for a bit longer. I'll meet you at the park. Stay safe."_

" A waterspeaker…" The man whispered. " Park Chul. I'll get you."

Slamming the phone back down on the table, the firespeaker headed out.


	4. Chapter 4

Song of Thunder

Chapter 4

Chul headed over to Penguin Park through mist, because he planned to take the Card Mistress to the house through mist, and he had to show them the house with magic anyway or else they would not be able to find it. Sensing for the Card Mistress should be no problem, except he could not find her there.

He made his way to the Penguin Slide, still sensing. He did not know the Card Mistress's aura, nor did he know Clow, but he assumed it should be pretty formidable. So far, he felt nothing.

Ten minutes later, a feeling washed over him. He turned.

_Card Mistress, not man. And that man is wearing red…_

Chul's phone rang just as a fireball headed his way. He ducked, choosing to ignore the phone for the moment. _In broad daylight? Is he mad?_ He darted under the Penguin Slide. When both are weak water hurts fire more easily, but when both are strong, especially offensively, fire hurts water more because it could change water into something else entirely. Chul did not want to take his chances, especially if this man survived what happened at the temple.

_Screw the Card Mistress. I am getting out of here._ Chul was a powerful enough waterspeaker, but after a certain range it really did not matter. The Penguin Slide lit on fire.

" Call the fire department!" He heard people outside shout. He opened his palm and shot a huge block of ice at the firespeaker.

" Who are you?" He demanded, as the firespeaker melted the ice with some difficulty. That is good, though the fact that the ice did not kill him instantly did not bode well. " What the hell are you doing?"

" My name is Hiko. Hand over the boy, Park."

Chul growled. " I hate the Japanese." Following that, he shot a torrent of ice at the firespeaker.

The pressure of Hiko's fire kept the ice at bay, but the solid melted slowly, which encouraged Chul.

" I've heard of you, Hiko. The so-called Firechild. You're not so impressive."

" I've heard of you as well, Park. The bastard son of Terauchi Hisaichi, and not even proud enough to admit it!"

Dark black anger washed through Chul, cold and piercing like his element. He rose out of the Penguin Slide and attacked the firespeaker with new vengeance. " I am no son of that beast!"

The earth shook under the force of their conflict, neither caring about exposure any longer. The cell phone rang but Chul could not hear it, deafened by his hate. His world narrowed down to the firespeaker and those black eyes, and the feeling of welcome cold of ice and death.

_My name is Park Chul…I am no son of Terauchi!_

oO

" What the—" Spinel was at loss for words.

Eriol already summoned his staff and was casting a spell over the area. He scanned the park for Sakura.

" I guess she did not get my message. She is not here." Eriol moved in.

" Eriol-sama! Be careful!" Ruby Moon warned.

" A firespeaker _and _a waterspeaker? Together?" Spinel Sun was in the air already, as people panicked and various trees were on fire. Ice accumulated on the ground. " How are we going to get out of this mess?"

That was not Eriol's primary concern. He wanted to make sure that Sakura was not heading here. " Ruby Moon, head over to the apartment. I'm guessing that Sakura is there. Tell her to stay in the apartment and not come to where the commotion is. I am dealing with this."

" You sure that's a wise idea?" Ruby Moon asked. " You might need her help."

" She will not be of much aid." Eriol replied. " We do not have enough brute power. This can only be settled through words, and Sakura, innocent as she is, may not fully comprehend the natural hate between firespeakers and waterspeakers. She might get hurt in the crossfire. Hurry, Ruby Moon!"

Running in with Spinel, Eriol called out to the two elementals. " Halt! What is the meaning of this?" He demanded in an imperious voice.

The firespeaker turned, eyes blazing. " Ah…young Hiiragizawa. 'Tis an honor."

" Hiiragizawa?" Chul turned. " Japanese as well?"

Eriol sighed mentally at seeing the crazed light spark in those blue eyes. Park looked young, like someone in his mid-twenties. To experience such a dark emotion already… _Nope. Telling him my last name instead would not improve matters. And he's probably not twenty either, got to remember that about elementals...  
_

" Well well well, I see one guardian. What happened to your other one?" The firespeaker sneered. " Or is she sleeping with another mortal?"

Spinel growled in rage, while Eriol was slightly taken aback. " I do not comprehend. I did not come here to fight with either one of you."

" Iie, I thought you were supposed to be packing up and leaving." Chul narrowed his eyes. " You were supposed to send that little heir of yours."

" He has an heir already," The firespeaker's eyes gleamed. " How fortunate."

" You are disrupting the peace in this neighborhood." Eriol replied. " Either stop this at once or take this elsewhere."

" Still adopting that haughty tone, Reed." The firespeaker sneered. " Why should we listen to you?"

" I am the voice of reason here." Eriol replied. " Look around you. You have endangered others and exposed magic. I do not care for your rivalry. That is none of my business. The welfare of this community is."

" It is not mine." The firespeaker replied. " I come here for the child. The Fire Demon will be summoned."

" You will not have him." Chul replied back angrily. " He is in a place you can never reach, you fire scum."

" You are not pure yourself, half-blood. Son of a prostitute, and with a father of honorable status you still don't know better enough to accept your good fortune."

" Terauchi is no father of mine!" A torrent of ice followed.

Confused, Eriol tried to figure out what he just heard. Elementals age slowly, if at all. Park could very well be over a hundred years old, but Terauchi…Terauchi sounded familiar…

It was Spinel, the one that spent the most time with books recently, who answered Eriol's question.

" Good heavens," Spinel told Eriol in English, " That waterspeaker is a World War II victim."  
" What?"

" Terauchi Hisaichi's that general that conquered South Korea. Or was it North?"

_Oh._ Eriol felt his hopes drop. _That explains his hatred of the Japanese. Well, this battle is never going to end._

Still, he had to try, despite the situation being a lost cause. He had to find his descendant, and for the moment he and Park Chul were on the same side, if this firespeaker was after Li.

Swinging his staff, he caused an explosion between the two elementals.

" Enough!" He thundered.

" This is none of your business, Reed!" The firespeaker spat.

" You are after my descendant." Eriol replied vehemently. " This is more than just my business. You injured Li Syaoran, you face my wrath."

Chul and Eriol shared a glance. The firespeaker noticed. Without warning, he suddenly turned into flame, and before either of the other two could react, disappeared into smoke and drifted away. Chul began going after him, but Eriol swung his staff in a blocking motion and held up his hand. " Let him go," He said.

" I will get you later, Hiko." Chul hissed.

" Hiko?" Eriol's heart plummeted again. _Is there no end to the bad news? _" That was Hiko? Hayashi Hiko?"

" I don't care what his last name is." Chul folded his arms. " Where is your precious little heir?"

" She did not get my message." Eriol replied. " Good thing too."

" He was not as powerful as they claim."

" He was wounded." Eriol pointed out. " If he had been at the temple, doubtless he did not survive unscathed. We have to be careful."

Chul was silent. His phone suddenly rang.

Eriol listened as Chul answered the phone.

" Where were you?" Ritsuko yelled. " I've called you nine times!"

" Ran into Hiko, one of the firespeakers."

" Kuso! He was—"

" I am here with Eriol."

" Eriol? Hiiragizawa?"

" Hai."

There was a pause.

" What did you call me for?" Chul demanded.

" I was calling because I wanted you to turn on the television."

" Why did you call my cell and not the house phone?"

" Because you always have it in your pants. I don't care what you were doing in the bathroom."

Chul cocked an eyebrow. " You Japanese are freaks. Why should I turn on the television?"

" For the news, you baka! Hong Kong is having this big fire just now, and the entire Li territory is up in flames!"

Eriol and Spinel looked at each other. The former paled.

" Firespeakers?"

" Could be anything, really, but no one made it out yet! It doesn't look good!"

" They are targeting the Li's." Chul looked at Eriol. " I was wondering why they did not choose your precious heir as their powerful sacrifice."

" What are you talking about?"

" I was not talking to you!" Chul turned away from the phone. " Self-important twit. Why would they target the Li clan?"

" I…I do not know." Eriol was at loss for words.

" The kid!" Chul suddenly exclaimed. " Doubtless he would have felt it!" He pressed the button on the phone and evaporated into mist.

" Matte!" Eriol yelled. " You haven't shown the house…" But it was too late. Chul was gone.

Eriol and Spinel looked at each other.

" Great." Spinel quipped. " Is there no end to the bad news?"

" Come on," Eriol cast some last minute spells over the park, to erase the events earlier. " We have to get to Li's apartment."

oO

" I don't know," Kero rubbed his head. " I have a bad feeling about this."

" It's not like I'm going to look into the past ten years." Sakura insisted. " I'm only going to look into last night. Would it really take that much energy?"

Kero and Yue looked at each other.

" The Return Card is a bit iffy that way." Kero told her. " It kind of reacts to commands in weird ways."

" You would probably be better off using the Time Card, although since the boy is magical he would be somewhat immune to its effects right now." Yue said.  
" It worked on me before, I mean, I got pulled back into the day before."

" That time the card was acting independently, from the remaining residues of Clow's magic." Kero said. " Your magic is still growing. And it's not like the more you exercise the faster it grows. It seems like it, but at a certain point if you overexert yourself you might actually stunt its growth."

" Then what do I do?" Sakura cried, dismayed. " I have to find Syaoran-kun!"

A wave of power washed through them.

" What was that?" Sakura hurried to the window. Tomoyo looked out, though she had no idea what she was looking for.

" Where did it come from?" Kero asked. " It felt like…"

" I think it came from Penguin Park!" Sakura looked at Yue. " What should I do?" She asked, feeling torn. " Do you think Syaoran-kun is there?"

The magic was still there, and growing in intensity. Yue suddenly had his doubts.

" That feels strong." Yue looked at Kero. " Do you know what that is?"

" Hey, feels like that guy in the living room…" Kero stared at Yue.

The two guardians looked at each other and the answer came to them both simultaneously.

" Firespeaker!"

" Nani?" Tomoyo blinked. " What is that?"

" It's a type of elemental." Kero explained. " They…they are complete masters over whatever they speak. More so than regular sorcerers. You brought home a _firespeaker??_" He glared at Yue.

" Are they bad?" Sakura asked nervously.

" Not always. Usually they are." Yue replied. " They used to be like other elementals but as time went on they became more offensive and violent."

Sakura did not understand. " Offensive?"

" Each element has an offensive side and a nurturing side." Kero replied. " Fire is no different. But by Clow Reed's time firespeakers veered toward the side of destruction, since it gives them some kind of bravado complex. . You brought home a _firespeaker??_" He repeated.

" I did not know he was a firespeaker, and neither did you." Yue pointed out. " Come, we have to be careful, but there seems to be some conflict there."

" Matte!" Ruby Moon sailed by the window. " Open up!"

" Hoe?" Sakura rushed to the window to let her in. Ruby Moon landed on the floor.

" Alright, no moving here, Eriol-sama's orders." Ruby Moon whirled around to look out. " We got a firespeaker and a waterspeaker going at each other in Penguin Park."

" Oh." The other two guardians commented, in an almost resigned fashion, though Kero was more so than Yue.

Sakura looked at them nervously. " That does not sound like a good thing."

" Fire and water don't mix." Ruby Moon replied. " Water can put out fire and fire can change water, if it's hot enough. Eriol-sama is going to mediate, I think. I hope."

" What if Syaoran-kun ran into them last night?" Sakura asked, fear building in her chest.

" Hai, he did." Ruby Moon paced a little. " He ran into a group of firespeakers and they wanted to use him as a sacrifice." She told them everything she could glean from Eriol's conversation with Ichiro. " Why didn't you answer your cell phone?"

" I never got a call!" Sakura reached down. " Oh…I left my phone back at home…to recharge…" Mind whirling over what she heard, she thought, frightened, of what Syaoran must have gone through the past night. _Is it permanent? _She wondered. _Will Syaoran-kun never be able to see again?_ A dread she never experienced before tore through her. It was a despair she never thought she would feel. _Syaoran-kun will pull through,_ she thought,_ he's strong._

" The man," Yue suddenly remembered. " Touya!"

" Go check!" Ruby Moon flung open the window. " Touya is no longer magical, so he might not be harmed."

Yue sailed through the window and headed to the Kinomoto residence.

" He must have listened to the voice message Eriol gave you and went to Penguin Park to meet the waterspeaker." Ruby Moon looked out after Yue. " Sneaky bastard."

" Then how do I find Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked. All of the sudden she wanted nothing more than to see Syaoran with her own eyes. Perhaps Ruby Moon was wrong, perhaps Syaoran was fine, a little bruised up, but fine. She could take a little bruised up Syaoran. She could take Syaoran as long as he was okay. " Is the waterspeaker a friend?"

" Let's hope he is." Ruby Moon replied grimly. " From what Eriol said, he sounds like he's a racist. Though he is helping us. I don't see why we shouldn't trust him, for now."

The conflict apparently died down. The group held their breath.

" I think I'll go check on Eriol-sama." Ruby Moon moved toward the window.

" We'll come with you." Sakura ushered to Kero.

oO

Touya was awake when Yue got back. He was sitting up on the sofa, holding his head.

" Touya!" Yue cried, sliding a little on the floor as he approached the boy. " Touya, are you all right?"

" Ow, feels like something clubbed me on the head." Touya looked up at Yue. " What happened?"

" It's that firespeaker." Yue studied Touya's eyes and features. When he realized Touya seemed otherwise unharmed, he relaxed. " He did not hurt you that much after all."

" What firespeaker?" Touya asked. " Nani?"  
" What is that smoke?" Yue felt a spell trying to take over him. He shook his head to clear it. " The firespeaker must have smoked the room to…" he shook his head again. He felt like a memory was threatening to disappear. " Touya-san, we have to get you out of the house."

" Nani? Doushite?" Touya was confused.

" Come on," Yue helped the boy up. " I should not have brought him to your house. I should have brought him to Yukito's."

" Brought who?" Touya asked.

Realizing what the spell must be doing, Yue doubled his efforts. " Come on, we have to get you out of here."

Touya stumbled a little as they went outside. " Where are we going?"

Yue paused, " I have no idea."

" Hm. Good thinking."

Yue ignored him. Touya was leaning heavily on him, making Yue nervous again. " What else did he do to you?"

" Who?" Touya asked.

Yue suppressed a sigh. It does not help that Touya did not remember. He sensed for Sakura.

" The commotion died down," He realized. " I want you to stick with me, so I am bringing you to Penguin Park. Do you think you can walk?"

" Sure." Touya straightened himself, but leaned on Yue again. " Argh, my legs feel like rubber."

" It must be the smoke." Yue caught the scent of a larger source burning. " Hai. I will fly you then."

oO

The house was completely damaged. Chul gaped for a moment in his solid form, before rushing in.

" Kid?" He yelled. " Kid? Xiaolang? Oh right, he was deaf."

Fortunately, the boy was still emitting sparks of electricity, and the flashing light could be seen within the rubble. With a spell Chul removed the smoldering wood with his hands, putting out the small fire that was burning. The child lay buried underneath, conscious but distressed, his entire body flashing and sobbing silently.

He reached down for the boy's hand, but a shock made him pull back.

" Argh!" He cried, jumping back. It felt like all the bones in his arm had shattered, all the nerves fried. He changed briefly into water and then reformed, but was reluctant to take his chances. Suddenly there was a huge blast. Chul covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut as the debris rained down on him.

" Would the brat stop that!" He yelled in Korean, changing into mist again to reform and heal the new injuries. He did not know how long he could keep this up before a blow kills him before he could transform.

Syaoran did not know what he was doing. He only knew that it hurt, and it felt like pieces were being ripped away from him and he could not stop it. In the darkness and silence he became even more desperate to find reassurance. He could not sense anything…he could not bear the pain any longer—

A burst of pain exploded in his skull.

Chul groaned in exasperation. " I have no clue _what _you are," He tossed the brick aside and heaved the boy up to him, " But you are getting on my _nerves!_"

As he hauled the child up to his arms, on the boy's face, smeared with dirt, two tears that had gathered in his eyes before he was knocked unconscious streamed down his face. The boy's head was bloodied again, and his face had contorted into such an expression of misery that Chul's heart ached in sympathy again.

_Kid probably lost his entire family._ He thought. He could not imagine how that would feel magically. When his mother died during the Korean War he had felt unbearable pain. The Li clan was not only large, the members were also very close, tightly knit with magic. It was why in the magical world the clan had been so formidable—it was not so much its individuals, in fact, there were plenty that were non-magical, but their strength contributed to the clan's power as a whole. To lose everyone like that would be traumatic, to say the least. And the child had just survived a horrifying ordeal with crazy firespeakers, and he was only what, ten, eleven years old?

He handled the boy a little more gently then. So far the boy had been remarkably brave. Chinese scum or not, Chul could bring himself to admire courage. Admiration did not mean he had to like the person, after all.

Climbing down from the rubble, he looked at the remains wistfully.

" Well, you destroyed the house. And I went to Penguin Park just to show them the house. No point in it now. Just be glad this wasn't _my _house. Then you'll be asking for it, Chinese brat."

Where to now? He had told the reincarnation of Clow that he could not move the boy, but that could hardly be considered now. With the house down the protections went along with it. The safest place would be at Reed's, though he had no clue where that is. He knew Clow Reed and his guardians once lived in Tomoeda, but that did not mean he recognized the guardians or the house. It was to his fortune that he met Eriol which meant he could locate the sorcerer again. He looked at the boy.

Broken arm, broken leg, fractured ribs, not to mention severe burns and wounds. This was going to be a fun journey, even by mist. And Chul had a feeling if the boy decided to spark electricity again, they both might enjoy a nice crashing on the ground from midair. Despite the fact that electricity cannot be conducted by pure water, all the debris plus the particles in the air, once mixed with the mist, might be enough to give Chul a shock that could take his life. Plus, if the firespeaker decided to show up again, while Chul might survive relatively unscathed by himself, he cannot say if he could protect the child effectively.

_Well, he beat up Hiko badly enough with those lightning stuff._ Chul thought wistfully. _Maybe he could do it again._

It did not seem like it though. The child's aura had weakened to an alarmingly low level. All the adrenaline from the stress of losing family had dissipated with the blow to the head. The boy would not be creating electricity bursts anytime soon, which was not that much of a loss…yet.

He had better get going. The more time he wasted dawdling around staring at the remains of Watanabe's house, the higher the risks get. If the firespeaker did decide to come check out the child, if Chul did not leave soon he might actually find the boy. Chul looked at the boy and wondered if the child's aura was even strong enough to be detected. It probably was not, but Chul's was, and if the firespeaker realizes he has been standing in one spot for a time Hiko might deduce the Li was here.

Forming a secure hold on the child, he changed both of them into mist and headed toward Eriol's aura. Surely the reincarnation of Clow Reed could take care of the boy from there. He had that black cat with butterfly wings that could probably carry the child safely. Either way, Chul would rid his hands of the boy and go home, and this time he is not leaving even if Ritsuko storms up his house.


	5. Chapter 5

Song of Thunder

Chapter 5

The firespeaker, it turned out, was the least of Chul's worries. On his way to the park he encountered a windspeaker, who attacked him out of the blue. He nearly dropped the boy, and had caught the child at the last minute, which was fortunate because the boy would not have survived the fall.

It was bizarre, because windspeakers were normally on good terms with waterspeakers. Feeling that his battle should not take place while the child was under his care, Chul had fled. The windspeaker pursued him for a while, before giving up and disappearing somewhere.

Afterwards, Chul had started heading back to the park, but was once again disrupted, this time by a waterspeaker.

_This is getting ridiculous,_ Chul thought. The waterspeaker was not very strong, and he was Japanese, so Chul killed him. Even so, Chul pondered on this development. Despite his natural hatred of the race, waterspeakers are the least likely to attack him. He had insulted Ritsuko quite a few times and their relationship still lasted because they were both of the same element. _What is going on?_

The boy remained unconscious, thankfully. Chul felt a little sad that the child could not voice his pain. It would be annoying, but the boy would have suffered less. His journey to the park twice interrupted, Chul landed on the ground in the woods a distance away from the park and lay the child on the ground. As he straightened, his cell phone rang.

" Ritsuko, what now?"

" Don't give me that. And I'm telling you, I feel weird enough already." Ritsuko snapped. " Where are you? I couldn't get to Ichiro's phone."

" Kid destroyed the house."

" _Nani?!_" Ritsuko cursed again. " What is that kid anyway?"

" I have no clue. He keeps sending out lightning from his entire body, really."

" Sounds like an elemental."  
" I have never heard of an electricityspeaker."  
" That sounds ridiculous, and I haven't either. Never mind what he is, you have to be careful, Chul-san—_everyone _is acting weird all of the sudden."

" Because the firespeakers released the demon?"

" Iie, because the demon is dead! The kid must have destroyed that thing!"

" Oh." Chul would have celebrated the fact that the demon was dead, except as annoying and as destructive as the creature is, all the elementals still need the thing around. " Great."

" So far it seems to only be affecting the elementals." Ritsuko paused. " Me included. I'm just warning you, Chul, if you hurt that kid you'll have me to deal with later."

" I never hurt the kid!"

" See that it stays that way!" Ritsuko hung up.

Chul looked at his phone. " Hm! She's more of a hothead than normal."

The boy did not respond.

Chul sighed. " If the inbalance of magic is affecting me, Li Xiaolang, it certainly appears to be working to your advantage. I am _really_ getting soft." He smoothed out the boy's hair and allowed himself to collapse down on the ground. " And good grief, now I can't sense that Clow guy anymore. This is all your fault." He shut his eyes, suddenly intent on taking a nap. After all, what else was he supposed to do again?

_Watch out for that Hiko?_

_Nah._

oO

" Eriol-sama!" Ruby Moon landed on the ground. Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero landed behind her.

Eriol coughed. The smoke served one good purpose—no one was able to see them. Eriol changed his staff back into a key and Ruby Moon changed back into Nakuru.

" Sakura-san," He greeted.

" Eriol-kun," Sakura hesitated. " Did you find out where Syaoran-kun is?"

" Iie." Eriol shook his head, not even bothering to note the hopeful glimmer dying in those green eyes. " Park-san left before he could show me the house."

" Why?" Nakuru asked. " Wasn't he here specifically to show the house?"

" He got a phone call from someone telling him that Hong Kong was on fire." Eriol waved his hand. " I cannot talk in this place! Let's get out of here."

Yue brushed past and landed, with Touya looking around a little dreamily.

" Oni-chan!" Sakura cried, running to her brother. " Oni-chan?"  
" I'm fine, kaijuu." Touya rubbed his head. " Ow, I think it's swelling."

Yue did not transform. " It's not that noticeable," He told Touya, " But we should probably put some ice on that." Forming an ice crystal, he put it to Touya's head. Touya winced but did not otherwise complain.

Sakura helped her brother get out of the park while Nakuru cried out, " Hong Kong was on fire?" Kero, who had ducked into Sakura's hood, poked his head out briefly.

Sakura turned around in worry. Eriol sighed. " Let's get to my place." He said instead. " I need to take a look at the news myself."

They hurried to the mansion, where the first thing Eriol did was turn on the television while Nakuru helped Yue and Sakura set Touya down on the sofa.

" What's wrong with him?" Sakura asked. " Why can't he walk?"

" I think he has been drugged." Yue replied. " He should be all right, but when is your father coming back?"

" He should be gone until next Tuesday." Sakura answered. " Why?"

" Because your house has been smoked." Yue looked up. " After this you might want to use the cards to clean it up. The firespeaker smoked the house so it wipes away your memory. I was able to withstand it, but barely."

Eriol cursed in English. Spinel hovered on his left shoulder.

_" An entire county is up in flames, Yoshi, has the cause of this fire been found yet?"_

_" Iie, so far firefighters are trying to control the fire, which is proving to be difficult because the water did not seem to do anything to the flames and in fact it seems to be getting more serious…"_

" Definitely firespeakers in Hong Kong." Eriol sighed. " It must be a conspiracy, in which case the clan stands no chance."

" What's going on?" Touya asked. " What is this about firespeakers?"

" They attacked Syaoran-kun last night." Sakura told Touya. " And the man in the living room earlier today, he was one of them."_ And they blinded him._ The more she thought about it, the more her emotions took a different turn. She was suddenly very angry. _They blind Syaoran-kun, they answer to me. These cards have got to be good for something, other than making life easy. It's about time I start using them to help my friends. To help...those I care about. Those I love..._

Troubled, she looked down. _I have not been good enough to Syaoran-kun. And now he might never know...don't think that way. He's strong, he'll pull through._ But the fear was real and unmistakable now. She could not lose him. She might not be able to make it if she lost Syaoran..._  
_

Eriol was staring at the television intently, but he could not get any more information out of the news. " Ah, my poor descendant." He sank into his chair.

Sakura turned to the television and suddenly realized what was going on. " What about Syaoran-kun's mother? And his family?" Sakura cried.

There was a long grim silence.

" The kid would have felt it." Spinel told Eriol. " That's why that world war fellow went out on us."

" World war?" Tomoyo blinked.

" Sensitive subject." Eriol grimaced. " Does not explain why he hates the British, but Yue, if you could go out and find him, in case he comes out? I doubt he would come out, but he might." At least Eriol sensed it was a possibility. " He has an aura similar to yours, only more…watery. And he is pretty strong. You have a better chance of locating him without enraging him."

Yue blinked, confused. Despite her naivety, Sakura had an idea of who they were dealing with.

" Is he one of those Chinese…"

" He's Korean." Eriol replied. Sakura fell silent.

" Uncomfortable…" Spinel remarked. " Not comfortable at all. Really _really _awkward here."

" He speaks Japanese very fluently." Nakuru observed.

" Why Yue?" Nakuru asked. " It's not like he's not Japanese himself."

" Because Yue is more introverted than the rest of you." Eriol replied. He picked up the phone and started dialing. " The waterspeaker was _really _cross when the three of us went to the park."

" Cross?" Spinel gaped. " That's the biggest understatement of the year."

" Just be careful." Eriol warned Yue. " And try not to take his words too personally."

Yue, oddly enough, looked up to the ceiling as if looking for inspiration, which was a bit out of character for him.

" I-Chi-Ro," Eriol said to the phone suddenly, speaking in a way that punctuated each syllable, " What on earth is going on?" He asked in English.

" Beats me." Ichiro replied. " All the firespeakers have been acting funny. Turns out the problem in San Diego is the same thing, only everyone is trying to leave."

Eriol paused. " What?"

" They're all trying to get to Asia." Ichiro replied. " I don't know what's gotten into them. They all seem to want to release the Fire Demon, and after that fiasco last night I think all of them are pretty enraged. Well, all the elementals are. Somehow that Li boy must have completely destroyed the demon, which is causing a great inbalance."

Eriol rubbed the bridge of his nose. " Aw, come on Ichiro," He begged, " Is there nothing _good _happening?" The guardians turned to him at this.

" My friend's getting married."

" There was a big fire in Hong Kong, did you hear?"

" It was on the news, I saw. The boy is the last one, right?"

" Yes."

" Listen, you have to get the boy from Park. Everyone has been starting to get a little mental around here. Sorcerers, elementals, the like, though mostly the elementals. I'm a little scared that Park might go mental as well. He's racist enough, I have no clue why Ritsuko puts up with him but she does, which was why I entrusted the boy to his care. At this rate though, with all the magic off balance, he might actually start acting on what keeps shooting out of his mouth. Ai! Got to go!"

" Congratulate your friend for me! Send my best wishes!" Eriol set the phone down. " Great."

" What happened?" Yue asked.

" You have to be careful." Eriol was starting to doubt himself. " Ichiro-san says that all the elementals are acting strangely. When you meet Park make sure you assess his mentality first. He could be a little bit…cantankerous."

Sakura looked after Yue worriedly as the guardian left in a flurry of wings.

oO

This time when Syaoran woke he could sense again, though vaguely. He could sense someone was lying next to him, but was not sure what the nature of that man was, nor what he was doing. He was pretty certain it was the man though, for when he weakly reached out and felt the hand the hand felt the same. He still could not hear, nor could he see, but this one connection with the magical world put him a little more at ease.

The emptiness the death of the Li clan left in his heart yawned like a gaping pit, but Syaoran had forgotten the original pain and at the moment thought the emptiness was caused by his shorter range of senses. He assessed his body, feeling various blockages, and concentrated on his qi to heal.

He lay still as he meditated. The air around him grew warm with the power of his qi. He drew in the qi from the environment while expelling the bad qi within. It gave him strength and some comfort. He wondered what the man beside him was doing.

Chul opened his eyes as he felt something draining away from his shoulder. Whipping his head around he realized the boy's eyes were open.

_He is taking away my magic! The brat!_

Enraged, he flipped to his feet and grabbed the child, who gasped in surprise.

" What are you doing, you filthy Chinese scum!" He shook the boy.

The poor child's face contorted into an expression of fright, and his glazed eyes darted around wildly. The boy reached out with his better arm and clutched lightly at Chul's robes, trying to steady himself. His breathing grew labored.

" Ah, right, you are deaf." Chul remembered. _And blind._ A voice of reason, fortunately, spoke to him. _He probably did not know that he was stealing your magic. He was probably just trying to heal himself._

Calming down and thinking more rationally, he dropped the boy. The child's breath hitched in pain. Chul straightened, running his fingers through his hair.

" What to do with you?" He wondered. " Where is that Reed guy?"

The boy could not respond. The amber eyes blinked once, twice, and darted around sightlessly. The boy's body curled slightly in a defensive manner.

All was still for a while.

Sighing, Chul knelt down and placed his hands over the child's chest. _I suck at healing._ He allowed the water element to course through the boy's body. Even if the healing was minimal, at least Li Xiaolang would still feel better.

The boy's hands reached up to his own and grasped them in gratitude. Chul sighed again. _Now I can no longer hate him. This is just great._

He removed one hand and took the boy to maneuver the little body onto his lap. Resting the child against his shoulder, He leaned back against a tree trunk and enveloped his arms around the broken body, continuing to send in the soothing water. The child stiffened at first, but eventually relaxed, lulled into sleepiness by the warm washing comfort. Chul glared up at the sky.

About half an hour passed. Chul had stopped channeling magic and was just holding the boy, who was asleep. He saw a shadow out of the sky and looked up.

_Oh no._ He thought. _Not another one._

As soon as the angel landed, Chul put up an ice barrier.

" Who are you?" He demanded.

The angel looked at Syaoran for a moment. Chul drew the boy protectively to him. " You're another one of them, eh?"

" I came here for the child." The angel said.

" You won't have him." Chul's eyes blazed. The ice shield thickened. The winged man stepped back.

" My name is Yue." The angel tried to reason with him.

Chul thickened the ice while setting the boy gently on the ground. He then melted into water, seeping through the earth, and appeared outside the shield. " Yue? I do not know of any Yue. That does not strike me as familiar. What do you want with this child?"

" I am no firespeaker, as you can surely tell." Yue hovered into the air slightly. " I am here to retrieve the child. His friends are worried about him."

" And why should I believe you?" Chul sneered. " So far I have met only mad elementals, but that does not mean sorcerers like you would not be affected."

" I am not a sorcerer," Yue tried to explain,

" Liar!" _Who is he trying to fool?_ Chul scowled, and without warning shot a torrent of ice at the angel.

Yue flung up his shield. _No reasoning with him._ He thought.

Unfortunately, soon the ice particles shot through his shield, forcing Yue to dodge.

" Please listen to me—"

" You will not get the child as long as I am standing." Chul hissed. " That boy has been through enough." His cell phone rang.

_That better not be Ritsuko again._ Chul growled in his mind. " Leave now, or I won't be merciful."

Yue quickly considered his options. He was no match for a powerful waterspeaker, and it seemed that the man was not only powerful, but getting increasingly angry. Plus, though Park seemed to be losing his mind, it looked to be more to the child's benefit. Was it safe to leave the descendant under Park's care?

" I do not wish to fight you." Yue tried again. " I come under Eriol's orders."

Chul tilted his head, his eyes gleaming dangerously. " Leave now. And stay away from the child from now on!"

Resigned to the situation, Yue flapped his wings and rose into the air, twisting his body around and flying back to the mansion to report to Eriol on what had transpired.

Chul erased the shield. The child was slightly chilled by the cold, but was unharmed. Chul knelt down.

" You're all right. No harm came to you." He said with some relief. " Stupid Chinese brat." But this time it was said somewhat affectionately.

He lifted the child into his arms and hugged him slightly. The boy smiled faintly. He did not wake up, but the comfort was felt.

oO

In Hong Kong Hiko appeared in a swirl of flames. The fire was still raging around them, but amidst their own element the firespeakers were unharmed. He looked at the leader, a Chinese woman with cold gray eyes. She was one of the minorities, and her hair was slightly red.

" You called," Hiko said.

She nodded. " The boy is still alive?"

Hiko nodded. " A waterspeaker was with him, and Clow Reed himself."

" He does not have Clow Reed's power, and the waterspeaker should be no match for you, regardless of how powerful he is."

" Iie, however, I was wounded before."

" How?"

Hiko related the events of the evening before. " I do not know what kind of magic that was, but it is very like that of a speaker."

The other firespeakers remained silent, considering this new development.

" What happened to the others in Tomoeda?"  
" They are dead."

" The boy managed to kill the fire demon." One of the firespeakers realized. " His power must be indescribable."

" The Li clan is not known for producing elementals."

" He is a Li from his mother's side." The gray-eyed woman replied. " We know little of his father save he passed away when the boy was younger. And he is no ordinary elemental, assuming that he is one. To produce lightning is unheard of. That is not one of the basic elements."

" Neither is wind."

" Taoist trigrams include thunder," The woman continued, ignoring the others for the moment. " Mountain, Lake, Thunder, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Heaven."

" They do not include metal in this, nor wood. And the magic of elementals is not based on trigrams, it is based on the five elements."

" With the exception of Wind, which took the place of Wood."

" Because Taoism did not cover everything."

The woman paced. " He may actually be one of the trigrams. In which case, he is both the first and only one of his kind."

" The Li clan is too blessed."

" You say that the child is with a waterspeaker?" The woman turned to Hiko.

" Park Chul."

" Ah, the son of that Korean prostitute." The woman nodded. " His hate leaves him unable to fulfill his potential. A pity, but at the same time, a plus for us. Once you have recovered, Hiko-san, go to seek this Park Chul and retrieve the boy. If this child has enough power to kill our fire demon, he is doubtless formidable and will be a threat unless he is ours. The rest of you—the Li clan's magical barriers are the only things preventing us from being affected by the inbalance in the magic world. Keep the fire burning, but make sure you do not leave the boundaries, or else we become like our cousins in the rest of the world."

" What will we do with this child, Jin-sama?" Hiko asked.

Jin looked at Hiko. " He can make our cult more powerful than the rest. With a thunderspeaker within our ranks, no one in the world would dare stand in our way. However, at this time he may side with any element, and having burned down the Li clan in the name of vengeance he would be reluctant to join us. In which case, he is but a ten-year-old boy, having no experience with this power. Now that we are warned, it should not be too difficult to kill him."

oO

" There are five types of elementals: Firespeakers, waterspeakers, windspeakers, metalspeakers, and earthspeakers. They are rare, but they have a tendency to flock together so they usually appear in groups. They have this ability to find each other." Eriol was taking out books from his library. " Firespeakers are predominantly Japanese, though they can come from other places. Waterspeakers are predominantly Korean and American. Windspeakers are predominantly Mongolian, metalspeakers are mostly British and Russian, while earthspeakers are predominantly middle-eastern."

" Is Li-kun one of them?" Tomoyo asked. " Is that why they were sacrificing him?"  
" I do not know why they were sacrificing him. The Li clan is not known for producing elementals. I know there might have been a feud between the Li clan and the firespeakers in China during World War II, when the firespeakers were heading out of Nanjing," Eriol took out another book. " That should be enough. Now to look through all of these."

" In that case though, the Li clan should be the ones sacrificing folks, not the firespeakers." Spinel opined.

" I am just guessing. It could be something else." Eriol flipped through the pages. " Out of all of them the waterspeakers are the least violent, that I know, because waterspeakers are good at healing so that is usually what they do. All other elementals have nurturing properties but only water can actually heal and counteract poison."

" Firespeakers can nurture?" Touya frowned.

" Firespeakers warm." Eriol replied. " If it's cold, firespeakers warm. The windspeakers do the opposite—if it's hot they cool. Earthspeakers nurture by growing, and metalspeakers nurture by shielding."

" That's what you mean." Touya leaned back, pressing Yue's crystal to his head. " Does this thing ever melt? If it doesn't, we can save lots of money without that fridge taking up all the electricity."

Nakuru snorted. " You're so cheap. The refrigerator doesn't take up that much electricity."  
" Hey, it accumulates."

" How come firespeakers and windspeakers aren't enemies then?" Sakura asked.

" It does not work that way." Spinel understood what the girl was thinking. " Firespeakers dislike water because the two elements don't mix. Windspeakers can actually boost firespeakers and waterspeakers. What windspeakers don't like is earth, because that slows them down, and earth gets hurt too."  
" And metalspeakers?"

" They…" Spinel scratched his head. " They don't really do anything magical. They just produce lots of metal and cut things up. If windspeakers and waterspeakers get together though, they get nervous."

" Why?"

" Metal needs water and air together to rust." Eriol answered from his book. " I knew it was somewhere among these books! Hayashi Hoki, the prophesized Fire child, ah…black eyes, hai…will lead firespeakers to glory…hai, this is the part the firespeakers know."

" The firespeakers don't know all of it?" Nakuru stared.

" Iie, Clow did not tell them all of it." Eriol replied. " For one thing, he did not tell them what the prophesized firespeaker's name is."

" There is a prophecy about this?" Sakura blinked.

Eriol did not bother answering her. " He is supposed to be a formidable firespeaker, if not the most powerful, the prophecy does not say. With the demise of the Li clan…"

Spinel choked.

" …He will lead the firespeakers to the height of their majesty and wipe out other elementals, including windspeakers, save those loyal to firespeakers." Eriol looked at Kero nervously. " Did Clow tell the firespeakers about this?"

Since Kero was not in Touya's range of vision, he answered in an odd tone,

" If that was in the first paragraph, he probably did."

" Did Clow know that the Li clan was his descendants?" Sakura asked.

A heavy pause. " Iie."

Nakuru cursed. " This is bad."

" Why would Clow tell someone this?" Sakura asked.

" Because in the past firespeakers were necessary and there were too few of them." Eriol replied. " It was the other elementals that kept causing problems. Well, except for metalspeakers, but fire was not that much of an issue back then, because firespeakers were not as violent as they were now. It was thought that once the firespeakers get rid of the other threats the magic in the world would stabilize, so the idea brought great hope back then. And the prophecy did not mention that it would come to pass several thousand years later." Eriol looked back down on the book. " For any prophecy there is one to counter it. I know Clow did not tell them all of it."

" I thought firespeakers were starting to veer towards destroying by then." Tomoyo looked at Kero.

" They were. Did not lessen their importance. Especially since a lot of what they destroyed were troublemakers."

" Where did this Clow hear these prophecies anyway?" Touya asked.

" He saw them." Nakuru replied.

" But how come Firey is so violent then?" Sakura asked.

" Firey was the personification of what fire could do." Eriol replied distractedly. He was reading again. " And the counter prophecy is that the Li clan might produce a member that could thwart Hiko's destiny. That was helpful." He finished dryly.

" We know that already. Li-san destroyed the fire demon." Nakuru pointed out.

" That was all Clow wrote down." Eriol slammed the book shut. " It did not say anything about the electricity, nor what to do afterwards."

Yue entered the mansion. Eriol saw him empty handed and guessed what happened. " Are you hurt?"

" Iie." Yue replied. " He left the house, for some reason. I was not able to ask why. He was defending the boy, and did not recognize me. We did not actually fight long, he shot ice at me, but he seemed adamant about protecting the boy, and when I left he calmed down."

" Is Syaoran-kun all right?" Sakura asked. Worry gnawed at her heart. _What if he—_

" He was unconscious when I got there. There was a lot of blood on him, but the waterspeaker seems to be taking care of him." Yue looked at Eriol. " How come the waterspeaker did not heal him?"

" Ichiro said something about that waterspeaker not being good at healing." Eriol replied. " So the waterspeaker is protecting my descendant? This is good news, I think, though I do not know if he could defend from an onslaught of many firespeakers. Do you know where they are heading?"

" Iie, they were not moving. The waterspeaker was in the woods east of here. He is a little unreasonable though,"

" Obviously." Eriol looked at Sakura.

" I want to see if Syaoran-kun is okay." Sakura insisted. " Maybe he won't see me as a threat?"  
" Well, I don't know about that, but seeing him might be fine." Eriol grabbed his keys. " Yue, if you could lead the way. Perhaps we can get close enough without alarming him."


	6. Chapter 6

Song of Thunder

Chapter 6

It was obvious that Chul could not keep taking the child from place to place to evade the firespeakers, or the other elementals. The boy was hurt and moving him too much may result in injuries even Ritsuko could not heal, assuming that she could cure his blindness and deafness. Remembering that someone had called him earlier, Chul took out his cell phone to look at the missed call just as another one started ringing. Both were Ritsuko.

" I need you to help me heal the boy." He said without a preamble.

There was a baffled pause. " You want _my _help? You actually asked for…"

" The boy is in pain." Chul replied. " And I really want to know what this kid's thinking, instead of constantly having to deduce. Earlier he was stealing my magic."

" Was he actually stealing your magic on purpose?"

" Iie, he was just trying to heal himself. But I really want to at least be able to communicate to him, and he's blind deaf and mute, so he's a little removed from the real world here."

Ritsuko paused for a moment, uncomfortable. " Really? You're serious?"

Chul glared at the ground. " Would I lie about this?"

" Alright. Where are you?"

" I'm…" Chul paused. " Well, Ichiro's house is down. Currently we're in the woods outside Tomoeda. I'm not sure where we are."  
" Well, if the boy is hurt you shouldn't keep him out in the open, elemental or not."

" The kid is bound to have lived somewhere in Japan, even if he's alone, right?"

" I was just going to tell you to bring him there." Ritsuko recited the address. " Got that?"

" That doesn't help me very much if I'm traveling by mist."

" Just how badly hurt is he?"

" Very."

" Alright, tell you what. I'll send you an image."

Chul took the phone off and closed his eyes, emptying his mind. Soon an image from the sky, showing the top of a building with a circle on it, formed in his mind. There were several landmarks that he could use to pinpoint where the building was, one being the elementary school, one the high school, one the park, and one the garden.

" Know where it is now?"

" Hai." Chul cut the call off. He turned to the boy.

" You better stay unconscious for this." He gathered the child into his arms.

The child did not stir. Chul cradled the boy's head close to him.

" I'm going soft." He groaned.

oO

Syaoran woke to darkness again, but he was on a bed. A very familiar bed. And there was a buzzing in his ears and his head hurt, plus he was thirsty.

He still could not move much, but this time he sensed a definite aura in the room with him. The aura was familiar too, and not threatening, though it seemed whoever the aura belonged to was quite annoyed.

The thirst quickly grew unbearable, and Syaoran tried to move again. He only succeeded in writhing painfully and utter a hiss of discomfort. Immediately, the aura approached him.

The buzzing pulsed, and it seemed like the person might be speaking, but Syaoran could not hear what it was. A warm strong hand held on to his. Syaoran tried to speak. He ended up repeating it several times, but nothing vibrated in his throat, which hurt beyond imagination, and he heard no pulses in the buzzing.

The hand left, leaving Syaoran despondent. He writhed more desperately, but soon stopped from the exhaustion and the pain. The aura left the room, he knew, because it became more faded somehow, but quickly returned.

Cool water trailed down his throat. It hurt so much that at first he choked and could not drink, but his body's needs won out and he drank thirstily, ignoring the sharp, horrible pain at his vocal cords. A hand stroked his hair soothingly.

A new aura floated through and formed. The hand left him. Syaoran tried to hear past the buzzing, but his head hurt even more from the effort. The new aura turned to him and warm gentle healing magic coursed through his veins. He shut his eyes blissfully. It felt so good…

Ritsuko sighed as she healed.

" What's wrong?"

" Kid's eyes and ears. The surface of his vocal cords are completely charred. How the blazes did he drink that glass of water?"

Chul cursed. " Can you heal it?"

" Hai, it's coming along. His eardrums are getting better by themselves, and I can't really speed it along. It's his eyes I'm worried about."

" Can you heal _that_?"

" Retinas are like exploded shells or something. That must have been quite a glare the boy had. It's a stretch, if it's possible at all."

Chul felt unusually sad about this.

" So the boy's staying blind?"

" I can get it to the breaking point. It really depends on how high the child's magic is, and his genes, I guess. I can't get it any further than that—it can either stay at the halfway point or it could start improving, but that's beyond my control."

" At least the kid can start hearing again, right?"

" Not yet. He might be buzzing right now. I can't do anything about that, but I know eventually he'd be fine. On that part, anyway. Broken bones are easy to mend. Spine not so much, but he almost tore the nerves a little bit. Or maybe it was you, with your rough handling."

" I wasn't _so _bad…"

Ritsuko snorted, not buying that.

" Handsome boy." She commented curtly. " Nice eyes. He'll grow to be a handsome man."

" Hmph." Chul looked at the boy. The child was already starting to move, and a wave of heat passed across the room toward the boy.

" Whoa," Ritsuko shrank back. " This youngster is some qigong master."

" A ten-year-old qigong master? Is that even possible?"

" Hey, take a look, he's got a sword and a bunch of other stuff in the closet."

The boy had stopped trying to pull energy from the room. He had covered his eyes. The waterspeakers did not notice.

Ritsuko took the photo of the boy's mother and sisters. " Lovely mother. Her daughters are not too shabby either. Were, anyway."

Syaoran had realized that despite feeling better he still could not see or hear anything. A panic rose in his chest and sparks started flashing at his fingers.

Chul took out the sword lace, releasing the blade, prompting Syaoran to jerk his head up in alarm.

" Sharp magical blade." Chul commented. " What's a kid his age doing with this?" He swung it, causing Syaoran to jerk his arm up in defense.

Ritsuko turned around, for the first time realizing how pale the boy had gotten since she healed him. " Xiaolang?" She called gently, making Chul turn around questioningly. " Xiaolang, can you hear us?"

The boy did not respond at first, breathing frantically in fear.

" Xiaolang?" Ritsuko looked at Chul. " Put that thing down!"

Chul changed the sword back into a lace. The boy did not react, except to lower his arm slightly. There was a desperation etched on his face.

" Oh." Ritsuko suddenly realized. " He just realized he's blind. Chul you're a heartless bastard!"

" Hey, I thought the kid knew already."  
" The kid was busy nursing his broken bones, you think he'd care at the time? He just realized the rest of him was fine but he can't see or hear anything. And it's obvious he can sense our magic. Come here darling," She cooed, even though the boy could not hear her. " You're all right. Everything's okay."

Syaoran did not hear her. He whimpered and his fingers flashed.

" Watch out!" Chul warned. The flash flung Ritsuko to the other side of the room. She stumbled as she landed on the floor and hit the wall.

" Ow!" Ritsuko exclaimed. " That was what you were talking about?"

" Hai." Chul approached the boy cautiously.

" Vicious, that thing."  
" He was not doing it on purpose, I don't think." Chul pressed his hand on the boy's leg, sparking another flash, but Chul dodged. " Come on," Keeping his hand on the boy's leg, he sent another wave of soothing water into Syaoran. The flashing stopped.

" He's scared." Ritsuko said after a moment. " I would be too. I wish there was some way to comfort him other than by whatever weird magic it is you're doing."  
" What are you talking about?"

" Huh?"

" That spell you sent through the boy's body." Ritsuko gestured. " I've never seen anything like it."

Incredulous, Chul stared at his hands. " What, is it unusual to try to comfort the boy with magic?"

" Well, not that, but the way you do it definitely is." Ritsuko frowned, but her expression softened when she looked at the boy. " He likes it."

" Of course he does."

" Didn't know you had it in you, Chul-kun."

" Don't you start, Ritsuko." Chul glared at her.

Ritsuko only smiled. " Say, if you try doing that with your mind, do you think you can talk to him?"

" I don't even know how to start."

" Hmph." Ritsuko pouted a little.

Chul stroked the boy's hair out of his face, and Ritsuko, despite the strange airy feeling due to the magical disruption, could not help but notice how he seemed different somehow, that the touch was more tender than she would have expected of him before.

_Perhaps the child melted that ruthless heart of his._

The boy turned his eyes to meet Chul's, or so it seemed. There was a long quiet moment, with only the boy's breathing to fill the room.

The phone rang.

Chul looked up, but Ritsuko held out her hand. Chul looked at her questioningly, before tossing her the cell phone.

" Moshi moshi?"

" …Ritsuko-chan?"

" Matt?" Ritsuko abruptly switched to English.

" Where's Chul?"

" Taking care of something. What do you need?"

" Folks here might need your help, depending on whether the issues over there is really what I heard. Is it true that someone destroyed the Fire Demon?"

" Yeah?"

Matt cursed.

" How come no one tells me anything?!"

" We were kind of busy!"

" Well do you have any idea what that means?"

" We're screwed?"

" We're more than screwed, Ritsuko. Do you youngsters even know where the fire demon came from?"

" Uh…same place all the other demons came from?"

" And where is that?"

Ritsuko had a bad feeling about this.

" Listen. The Fire Demon was created by the firespeakers, not the other way around. Same way the Water Dragon was created by waterspeakers, the Earth golem by earthspeakers, yadda yadda, whatever. They're all meant to store the excess magic because humans can't handle such concentrated power. You destroy that fire demon, especially if it's in this world, that means all that power gets blown into the firespeakers. Nobody tells me what's going on! Ugh! And also, since the elements are all supposed to be balanced, the other elementals should be going nuts too, because our powers are drained, if you haven't noticed already. Though we're not going as crazy as we should, which means something's there that's countering the effects of the firespeaker's gain."

Ritsuko took a moment to understand what Matt was saying. Matt started demanding whether she was still there, and Ritsuko cut him off by turning promptly to Chul and commenting, " Kid's an elemental."

" Kid?" Matt blinked. " What kid?"

" There's a boy here. Li Xiaolang. The firespeakers were using him as a sacrifice last night to summon the Fire demon."

" Are they _nuts?_ They wanted to summon the demon _here?_"

" Well, the boy killed the Fire demon."

" How old is this kid? Seventeen?"

" We don't know. He seems to be around ten to eleven years old."

Matt let out a string of curses. Ritsuko took that moment to compare Matt and Chul. One was a racist, the other had chronic cursing problems. _They should really stay away from each other. I wonder if all elements have at least one individual with issues. Or maybe it's just whatever unbalance is doing to him._

" This kid's an elemental?"

" Yeah, he's one of the Li clan members so we had our doubts at first, but—"

" The Li clan? I can't believe this. How many descendants does that bastard have? It was his fault we're in this mess, that freaking prophecy he found. And the Li clan doesn't produce elementals."

" We know. But there's no other way to explain this."

" Alright. What does this kid do? Is he a firespeaker too?"

" No. We're not sure what he is. I would say thunderspeaker." _Electricityspeaker is too much of a tongue-twister._

A heavy pause.

" A thunderspeaker?" Matt sounded more subdued this time. " The thunderspeaker turns out to be Chinese?"

" Wait a minute, so there is such a thing?"

" Hold on, let me think." Matt paused for a while. " Does the kid shoot electric sparks or something?"

" Yeah! That's what had us so confused. He does it like a firespeaker, but it's…lightning. But we thought there was no such thing as a thunderspeaker."

" The first elemental to ever exist was a thunderspeaker." The older elemental replied after a moment. " Not sure if it was a guy or a woman, but he or she definitely left and became the element in the end. I know that thunder had very special qualities, since it's very extreme. And oh, all the other elements came from this thunderspeaker. He or she had five children, and passed a certain element to each of them, which just so happens to be a full element that makes up this world. So there." He then cursed. " We have a ten-year-old thunderspeaker and no one told me any of this??!"

" I just told you!" Ritsuko snapped. " And for the last time, we didn't know! So this kid _is _a thunderspeaker? What does that mean?"

" Could be good or bad. If it's good it's really good. If it's bad it's apocalyptically bad. Because lightning doesn't have a nurturing side. It's all attack."

" That doesn't make sense. All elements _must _have a passive side. Otherwise they wouldn't exist. And if the other elements came from lightning than where did their passive sides come from?"

" No clue about that. And I always thought the thunderspeaker would be African, despite their bizarre magic. Is the boy all right?"

" He was hurt badly. And he's been blinded and deafened. His eardrums will recover, but his eyes I can't do anything about."

" A blind thunderspeaker?" Matt groaned. " Why now? I was just ready for retirement in Hawaii. Why now? Anyway, make sure that Hiko doesn't get him. He's the last Li, correct?"

" Hai."

" Oh good. I thought for a moment that the prophecy had come to pass."

" What prophecy?"

" Listen. I'm going to gather some other windspeakers and head over to wherever you are."

" Tomoeda. I'll meet you at the Penguin slide and take you to the apartment."

" There's a penguin slide in Tomoeda?"

" Can't miss. Ridiculously fat looking thing with a huge mouth for a slide."

" Okay…I respect Japanese culture and all but that's just weird."

" It's better than your idea of a roller coaster along George Bush's tongue."

" Oh yeah!" Matt chuckled. " Good point. I'll see you there in a bit. And tell Chul that his house lit on fire due to nutty firespeakers."

Ritsuko hung up. " Matt is coming over with a bunch of windspeakers." She said to Chul. " I'm heading over to Penguin Park to meet him and bring him here. Oh, and your house got burned down by firespeakers."

oO

" He was here when I came. They were both here."

" What if he hurt Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked worriedly.

" If he knows what's good for himself, he wouldn't." Eriol replied coldly as he inspected the ground, which was wet and cold. He meant more than Sakura's wrath when he said that.

" Why did he take Li-kun out in the first place?" Tomoyo asked.

Eriol paused. " Kerberus, Spinel, can you two go up and see if you can find a house that's been destroyed?"

Kero and Spinel glanced at each other at this odd request. Eriol was not paying attention to them though. With simultaneous shrugs, the two guardians took to the air.

Eriol's phone rang. It was Kaho.

" I have some good news."

" Do tell. I could use some."

" The magic is stabilizing. Something is anchoring everyone."

" What do you mean? Really?"

" The firespeakers are the only ones that are dramatically affected so far. From what I heard, Natasha said that the other elementals are experiencing a little bit of influence. Some of them became more temperamental than usual, and at first some changed dramatically, but now it seemed to have died down and they're now behaving more normally. Any changes can be attributed to regular stress."

" That makes no sense. The Fire demon was a source."

" There is something with greater influence than that Fire demon at work here." Kaho replied. " For now it seems to be working in our favor. It's started keeping the other elementals sane, at the very least. Also, I heard from Rich that Matthew is coming here to Tomoeda with a bunch of windspeakers. He guesses that Matthew has been in touch with the waterspeakers that have Li in their possession."

" Is there any cause for concern about this?"

" Not yet, although Matthew never told Rich why he is coming, he just flew away as soon as he finished his call. Rich also thinks that Matthew might be heading first to Penguin Park because he mentioned some slide in Tomoeda. If you head there now, you might be able to catch them."

" Oh good." Relief flooded Eriol's heart. " Arigatou, Kaho-san. This makes me very happy."

" Oh, another thing, not to dampen your happiness," Kaho continued, " I called Suo Na. She headed over to the province in Hong Kong and called me just now. There are no survivors, Eriol."

Eriol closed his eyes and sighed.

" Alright, bad news along with the good, I guess. Our primary concern is now Li Syaoran."

" Hai."

" I'll talk to you later." Eriol hung up. " We have to get to Penguin Park."

" Doushite?"

" A hunch." Eriol looked up at the sky. Kero and Spinel were flying down.

" How on earth did you know that there was going to be a house destroyed?" Kero asked.

" It was completely flattened." Spinel added.

Eriol frowned. " They must have been attacked…come, let us hurry to Penguin Park."

" Why are we going to Penguin Park?" Kero asked.


	7. Chapter 7

Song of Thunder

Chapter 7

" We should cloak ourselves." Ritsuko told Matt as soon as he materialized. The other windspeakers followed suit. " If the firespeakers are tracking us they might decide to follow you guys to where the child is."

Being windspeakers, cloaking was one of their most basic skills. They easily cast a cloak over her as well. The park was still burning a little, and the sky was dark by now, so most people did not pay them much attention. The group took to the air.

" So we have a blind thunderspeaker who just lost his entire family in Hong Kong. We're so dead."

" Thunderspeaker doesn't even make sense. Thunder is just the noise."

" They wanted to be more poetic?"

" How the blazes does 'thunderspeaker' make things more poetic?"

" It's better than 'electricityspeaker'. That's just ridiculous. Plus, they didn't even have the word 'electricity' back then. And 'lightningspeaker' didn't make sense either."

" Makes more sense than thunder."

" Do we care, really?" One of the windspeakers complained. " What's this kid's real name anyway?"

" Li Xiaolang."

" Little boy? His name is literally ' Little Boy'? That would get him into a lot of bullying."

" No, not that 'Lang', it's Little Wolf."

" That's even worse."

" Admittedly it won't get him bullied. Just weird looks from traditional adults." One of the windspeakers pointed out.

" Maybe his father was Li Dalang. Xiaolang, Dalang, a big wolf and a little wolf."

" His apartment's down there." Ritsuko descended.

Chul was still comforting the boy, who looked like he was on the verge of sleep, but for some reason insisted on blinking his eyes. It was starting to get on Chul's nerves. The elementals sailed through the window and materialized.

" I can't believe they burned down my house. Why _mine?_ Why not someone else's?" Chul ranted at Ritsuko as soon as he saw her.

" He all right?" Ritsuko asked, ignoring him. " Ugh, my mouth is numb. Matt, stop forcing people to talk when they're in vapor form."

The windspeakers were complaining a bit too, rubbing their mouth.

" Ow, my teeth are tingling."

" Chatting away while in mist form?" Chul guessed. Behind him, Syaoran tensed, freezing, and his eyes widened in alarm.

" Hai." Ritsuko replied. " How is the boy? Still awake, I see."  
" Refuses to go to sleep. I think he's trying to blink his vision back." The windspeakers started cloaking the apartment as well, to give them more security.

" Let him try. I need him distracted anyway." Matt instantly moved over to the boy's side. " Classic Li. Handsome boy though. Those eyes are lovely. What a pity." He reached out to take the boy's wrist.

With a weak and hoarse cry, Syaoran flung his hand up. A bright burst, fast as lightning, flashed in the room, and before Matt knew it he was flying across the room. He handed heavily on the corner of a long table, shattering what breakables were on it.

" Ow!"

" Yikes." Chul winced. " And he was weakened magically too."

" I can kind of see how he managed to thwart the firespeakers. Ow…"

Another flash illuminated the room, followed by another, like a compulsive reflex. Syaoran's eyes moved over them.

" Easy there." Chul reached out for Syaoran's hand, gritting his teeth anxiously. Surprisingly, the boy did not shock him, though his eyes and hands still flashed.

" Maybe I should hold him when you touch him again."

" If I touch the kid again." Matt winced. " Ugh, this is going to be messy."

Chul sat on the bed and lifted Syaoran's shoulders. Syaoran reached back to try to grab Chul, but his movements were stiff and he could not quite find a grip. Chul allowed Syaoran to lean on him as Matt cautiously approached again.

This time Matt only received a light tingling shock, still uncomfortable but much more tolerable. Matt found the boy's pulse and concentrated for a while.

" His qi is healing fast." Matt said after a moment. " This kid has enough inner qi to beat a qigong master."

" He is a qigong master." Chul replied. " He accidentally started to suck my magic out earlier."

" Are you sure it was an accident?"

Chul grimaced reluctantly. " I don't think he's that kind of kid." He admitted reluctantly.

" Kami-sama," Ritsuko exclaimed, " Chul-kun actually believes someone is good for once."

" His magic levels are low but his aura is very pure." Matt continued. " If his magic did anything Ritsuko healed them, for the most part. Most of his magic is wound up though."

" He's only a kid."

" I know. But this means someone must train him."

" He's a thunderspeaker then?"

Matt frowned and nodded. " A very upset thunderspeaker. And very hungry."

Starting at this strange turn, Chul stared at him. " He's hungry?"

" I heard his stomach growling."

" I didn't and I was right behind him!"

" It's very small. But he's hungry." Matt insisted. " And no wonder either. He hasn't eaten all day, has he?"

" Well, we were more worried about contacting his acquaintances and trying not to dislodge his bones any more than they already are."

" Well, now that his bones _aren't _broken, we can concentrate on feeding him. Kid's got a fridge?" Ritsuko started leaving the room.

" In the kitchen, of course."

" Someone has to _train _him?" The windspeakers were starting to become frustrated.

" What's so unusual about that?" Chul snapped. " We all needed to be trained."

" How on earth are we going to find another thunderspeaker?"

" We aren't." Matt replied. " There is no other thunderspeaker."

" …Okay…"

" Uh…guys, we have no food here."

" Nani?!" Chul turned around. " Kid must have wanted to go grocery shopping before he had that fire demon fiasco."

" So what, call?"

" Call who?" Chul asked. " I don't know this place. Ritsuko? You know any stores around here?"

" I don't know any place. And even if I did I wouldn't know the phone number." Ritsuko called from the kitchen. " And the kid apparently cooks his own food because he doesn't have any phone numbers stuck on his kitchen like other normal human beings."

" I'll go out and take some home. See if there are any fast food restaurants around." Grabbing her coat, Ritsuko went out the door, taking the elevator this time so that she appeared normal.

oO

" Arigatou, for the dinner."

Yamazaki laughed. " Well, I lost the bet, so.

" It was really good though."

" Arigatou."

Chiharu smiled. " You don't have to walk me home you know."

" Ah, it's a fine day outside. And I have the time to spare." Yamazaki looked to the park. " What's that smell in the air?"

" Smells like something was burning."

Yamazaki looked around. " Hey…what's Hiiragizawa-san doing here? I thought he would have left by now."

" Do you want to go check?"  
" Is that okay?"

" Sure. I want to go check myself."

" We missed them."

" Hmph." Kero sat on Sakura's shoulder, a little bit tired. Spinel sat on Eriol's, though he began to start looking over that shoulder as if someone was behind his master. Eriol rubbed the bridge of his nose.

" Is there a way to follow?"

" I forgot about windspeakers. They have this ability to cloak themselves and make themselves invisible magically as well as physically. As long as they keep the cloak up we won't be able to find them."

Sakura sighed. " If only I had been able to sense the waterspeakers earlier…"

" Truthfully, they are not much more noticeable than windspeakers." Eriol comforted her. " Both don't really stand out. In fact, elementals can sense each other pretty easily, but sorcerers have a hard time telling them apart from the rest of the environment."

" For obvious reasons," Nakuru added.

" Hey guys," Yamazaki waved a little uncertainly, " Hiiragizawa-san."

" Konbonwa, Yamazaki-san." Eriol greeted.

" Chiharu-chan!" Sakura waved.

" What happened to the park?" Chiharu asked. " Why does it smell like smoke everywhere?"

" It was on fire earlier today." Yukito replied.

" Someone set the park on fire?" Yamazaki widened his eyes. " Was anyone hurt?"

" Hopefully not." Eriol walked away.

" Hey, are you looking for something?" Chiharu asked.

" We're trying to see if we can meet someone here." Sakura sighed. " We missed them, didn't we?"

" Seems so."

" What do we do now?" Sakura asked.

Eriol looked at her, considering. " Nothing." He finally said.

" Nani?" Sakura cried, disbelieving.

" It's obviously all right." Eriol pointed out, " They will not hurt him since they seem to be getting back to their senses. And if we can't find them, well, let's just say if we _could _find them the firespeakers could as well. Now at least it's probably difficult for them too."

" Probably?" Sakura repeated. _That' not enough…_

" Hurt who?" Yamazaki asked. He was starting to get a little bit nervous. _Why are they acting so weird?_

Eriol looked at Yamazaki in the eye. " Li Syaoran."

Yamazaki looked at Chiharu.

" He wasn't in school today." Chiharu remembered.

" Is he in trouble?" Chiharu asked.

" We don't know." Eriol replied solemnly.

" Should we call the police?"

Silently, Eriol looked at Sakura and weighed his options. Things could get messy, but the police might help because while they might get in their way, they might also get in the way of the firespeakers. _Finding my descendant is much more important than worrying about dealing with non-magicians. On the other hand, innocent people might be hurt, if the firespeakers are really as mental as they should be…_

_Not yet. Not until we are really certain we cannot find him._

" He's only been missing for a day." Eriol told Chiharu. " I mean, he could have been sick and just gone to the hospital. We'd be giving him more trouble than it's worth."

" Hai." Sakura agreed.

" Alright then," Yamazaki started heading away. " Keep us updated, hai? I'm worried about that guy too."

_Not more than me. Not more than Sakura._ " Of course." Eriol nodded.

" What do we do?" Sakura asked.

" We go home." Eriol replied. " We sleep. You have homework to do."

There was a long stunned silence.

" Hoeee!!!!"

oO

" Food!" Ritsuko lifted the bags. " I don't know. I used my credit card. Someone better reimburse at least part of it."

" Certainly." Matt nodded.

" Japan's weather is too humid." One of the windspeakers sniffled. " I get allergies every time I come here."

" That sounds very bizarre." Another commented. " You're literally allergic to Japan?"

" I don't know, alright? Every time I come here I start getting allergy symptoms."

" Here we go." Chul took out some boxes filled with food. " What do we have?"

" Lots of chicken and shrimp. And pork."

" You usually can't go wrong with chicken." Matt gestured at the boy who was getting up and trying to adapt to his new situation. At least he was no longer flashing electricity in terror.

" Do I have to feed him?" Chul asked with some horror.

" That's not the worst that could happen." Ritsuko replied. " Come on, don't be a baby."

Chul helped the boy stand up and guided him out of the room to join the others. The child gripped the waterspeaker's hands tightly as he staggered a little, clearly unused to his new situation.

" You bought any drinks?"

" You're pushing it."

" Come on. What are we going to drink then?"

" It's called water, and you can boil it if you don't trust the faucet."

" Does Japan have clean water?" One of the windspeakers asked.

" Dunno. China definitely doesn't." Matt headed over to the water.

" It's clean, don't worry." Ritsuko rolled her eyes. " Chul and I will keep it clean."

" I will do no such thing." Chul scowled. " I have my hands full enough already. How come you aren't feeding him, woman?"

" Because you stand less of a chance of getting shocked?" Ritsuko cocked an eyebrow. " And don't you use that term in that fashion or else you're asking for a whipping."

" I thought Japanese women were supposed to be more submissive."

Ritsuko's eyes flashed in anger. Syaoran, sensing the rising temper, whined fearfully, prompting Chul to reassure him and Ritsuko to quiet down.

" Kid can sense auras." Matt was already eating. There was a low growl. " Kid is really hungry too. You mind being responsible for once and," He inserted a curse, as if of habit, since Ritsuko could not fathom why he would do that otherwise, " feed the kid already?"

" Ugh!" Irritated, Chul shoved a pair of chopsticks into the boy's hand. The windspeakers raised their eyebrows disapprovingly but did not comment. Syaoran, confused and blind, wore that confusion openly on his face, with not a little bit of dismay.

Ritsuko already pretty much forgot Chul's earlier tenderness. " Chul, you're a bastard."

Chul shoved the food in front of Syaoran and picked up his own and started eating.

Ritsuko sighed and moved over to take the chopsticks from Syaoran's hand, but the boy surprised her by slowly lifting the food and sniffing it. He lifted the box until his chin touched the top edge before dipping his chopsticks in.

" Kid's very resourceful." Matt noted. " Careful of the fish…"

To his credit, Syaoran paused. He set the box down and reached to his mouth with his left hand.

" You might want to take the meat out for him." Ritsuko suggested, a little vehemently. " Kid's freaking blind. You can't expect him to do some things."

Wordlessly, Chul peeled away a piece of meat from the fish. Syaoran ate it carefully, but as Chul began doing more the boy began eating with a little more ease.

" Oyster tastes so weird." One of the Mongolians commented. " What are we going to do with the kid after this?"

" I'm thinking I'll try to contact Clow." Matt replied. " He might know something about this, plus the kid is his descendant."

" Do you know how to contact him? He keeps to himself usually."

" I just contacted him. He's in Tomoeda." Chul replied. " Oh great. I was supposed to show him the house…but the house is gone."

" What house?" Matt asked.

" Ichiro's house."

" It's gone?"

" Kid destroyed it."

The windspeakers muttered. Matt cursed, as expected.

" I did not know the boy was so powerful."

" He was wounded too. Badly."

" Not bad for a youngster." Ritsuko smiled at the boy.

For some reason Chul felt it necessary to pat the boy on the back of the head. The boy leaned a little into the touch, to seek comfort.

" Poor kid." Ritsuko said softly. " And he lost his entire family. Do you think he's aware of it?"

" He was." Chul said quietly. " Why do you think the house was destroyed?"

The windspeakers muttered again and Matt cursed under his breath.

" He doesn't seem too upset at the moment." One of the windspeakers noted.

" He has other things to worry about." Ritsuko pointed out. " Such as the fact that—whoa!" She caught the piece of vegetable just as it began slipping out of the box.

" He has very pretty eyes." A young windspeaker said. " A pity he's blind though. It's kind of unnerving."

" Even more so for him." Chul replied grimly.

" We have to find some way to keep track of the firespeakers." Matt said after a moment. " No doubt they have their sights on this kid,"

" No doubt. Hiko was among them." Chul remembered to mention.

" Hiko??" The windspeakers began mumbling to each other in worry. " Hayashi Hiko? The devil!"

" Were you able to defeat him?" Matt asked.

" Barely." Chul admitted. " He was wounded and it was still hard to fight him. Hiirangizawa Eriol came up soon after and took my side."

" Clow?"

" Hiko saw him take my side and high-tailed out of there."

Matt rubbed his eyebrows. " Hiiragizawa Eriol." He put his chopsticks down. " I'm heading out to see if I could find this guy by simply walking around. I think I can recognize his aura."

" Good luck." Chul called after him dryly. " And make sure you bring him here when you do find him, and he doesn't go off flying to England."

Matt gave Chul a confused look. Ritsuko raised her eyebrows, also puzzled. The boy appeared to look toward the window.

" Hopefully I don't run into other elementals," Matt shut the door behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Thanks to Cherry tiger for pointing out I've been spelling Eriol's last name wrong for the past 7 chapters. They're all corrected now, thanks to great improvement over the years in editing documents. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed the story, because they make me really happy even though I don't ask for reviews the way many other writers do, hehe. That would be the result of laziness. This part of the story was a bit difficult for me. Action scenes are not my forte at all, but oh well...just skim through this part? Now, on to the story!

Song of Thunder

Chapter 8

Hiko had been meditating for the entire day, and amidst the fire of his fellow firespeakers his strength returned more quickly than it would had he been alone. At length Jin came to him as noon settled in Hong Kong.

" I think you have recovered enough." She said. " The fires have been burning for days. To continue will exhaust our resources needlessly."

" I agree." Hiko opened his eyes from where he sat. " Perhaps we shall return to Japan?"

" The other elementals are not cooperating." Jin moved to the window of the smoking building. " We are on our own, as I expect. However, there are certain sorcerers I can persuade to help us for a price, a price undoubtedly you are willing to pay."

" Of course."

" In that case, our first mission is to locate the child." Jin turned to him. " No doubt he is being cloaked, for the waterspeaker has a close American friend who is a windspeaker. However, if we can find a magical object of this child, or any belonging that carries his essence, the sorcerer should have very little trouble marking him for us. In which case we can find the boy and kill him easily."

" Do you know where I can find such a thing?"

" Li Xiaolang has an apartment in Tomoeda. There is very little chance that he is there, but you are to go there and search for whatever you can find. Since you kidnapped the boy outside his home, very likely he did not bring anything of importance with him, and it is also very unlikely that he now had a chance to go back and retrieve them. You should find whatever we need there."

Hiko stood. " In that case, tell me where to go and it shall be accomplished."

oO

" _The strangest thing about this fire is that it's staying in one place._" A Chinese firefighter was telling the reporter. _" It is not behaving like a normal fire. It is very controlled, which may imply some kind of conspiracy at work here."_

" _Are you saying that this fire might have been deliberate?"_

" _Certainly seems so. Normal fires spread out. They like to take over as much area as possible. This one not only does not respond to any efforts to put it out, but is not leaving the boundaries of the property here. Someone might have planted chemicals around the borders to contain it…"_

" Do you want a sleeping pill before you go to bed?" Touya asked. " You don't look like you'll get enough sleep tonight."

" Un." Sakura replied distractedly.

Touya shook his head. " Kids these days," He muttered, heading to the cupboard. " Was I ever this stressed out when I was your age?"

The news switched to local events, relatively disinterested in what was happening so far away. Touya came into the living room with the pills and a glass of water. _Oh yeah,_ he thought, _When I was her age Oka-san died. Never mind._

" Syaoran-kun probably won't sleep well tonight." Sakura said mournfully, and Touya sighed.

" Worry more about yourself, for now. You need to get some rest. Watching what's going on in Hong Kong isn't going to help him."

" Un." Sakura sighed.

Feeling wretched, Sakura went upstairs after turning off the television. Touya wondered silently if he should keep watch for a while to make sure she was really sleeping and not wandering off with her cards to search for Syaoran herself. Thankfully, the sleeping pills did the work. Sakura was too tired to think about tricking her brother that way, and he saw her crawl into bed and fall into deep sleep.

_Kid, you better be okay…_

How could Li Syaoran possibly be okay? The boy lost his family, and when last heard was blind, deaf, and muted. _Maybe I need a sleeping pill as well._

oO

The first thing Syaoran heard was thunder. It sounded soft to his ears, but he felt the bed shake due to the force of it.

His mind had settled into a kind of stupor. He was never given a chance to properly grieve so far, first interrupted by the realization that he was blind, and then before he could even wrap his head around that, he had to adapt to being at the mercy of many strangers. He was so afraid he no longer felt it, and while he was sent to bed he did not sleep, instead waiting those long hours in the dark emptiness where his sight had been, his mind freezing and losing all track of time.

Sometimes Sakura would enter the emptiness. Thoughts of her, what she was doing, perhaps hanging out with Tomoyo. Eriol, heading back to England. Perhaps he was there already. He wondered what she would do had she known that he nearly died the night of the carnival. He had no clue what she would do. He barely knew himself. Perhaps his friends had spent these last two days going about their own lives, not at all aware that he was with a stranger, and trying his utmost to bring order back into his life. But this was thought with a kind of indifference, almost. He could not bring himself to feel. Because if he felt some kind of dam might fail and it will come pouring out and he could not afford to have it all pour out.

Outside, Matt returned to the apartment, knocking lightly on the door in case the boy was put to bed. A windspeaker opened the door for him after checking to make sure he was not an imposter, or someone they better lock the door against.

" Nothing?"

" No, but that was sort of because I got intercepted by this really annoying metalspeaker and then we were attacked by a firespeaker. I figured it's probably not best to continue the search. What's his heir's name?"

" Don't know."

Matt cursed. " Whatever. Kid's stuck with Chul then. He in bed?"

" Yeah, Chul put him into bed."

" Chul's a lot nicer to the Chinese than he is to Mongolians." Another windspeaker complained.

" Quit whining." Matt rolled his eyes. " Even Chul isn't dumb enough to go around abusing a kid. Especially since this kid can probably kill you if he gets panicky enough."

" He is acting weird though." Ritsuko pointed out. " If I didn't know Chul better it would seem like he's actually worried about the boy."

" Maybe he does."

" But Chul doesn't care about _anyone._"

" Hm."

" What's up with this Chul anyway?" A windspeaker asked. " He connected to the Li's? And what's with all these racist comments?"

" His mother was some village beauty. When General what's his name attacked he took his mother to be his prostitute. Chul was their son, so he hates the Japanese." Ritsuko shrugged. " Then as he was raised the Korean War came along and his mother escaped with him to China, but was wounded by drunken Americans, so he hates Americans. Then the Chinese were not able to save his mother, so he hates the Chinese. And I guess for Chul, if three different races treat you wrong, everyone else does as well."

" Save his mother from what?"

" Oh. It was some sexually transmitted disease. I think Schumann had it too. Makes you go crazy and commit suicide."

" It came from the General?"

" Well, yeah. Not like anyone else would want her at that point. Spoiled goods."

" Harsh. Well, that does explain some things about his character, I guess."

" He's a good guy." Ritsuko sighed. " He's just super super bitter. And he's not the most considerate of guys. But he won't actually go around harming folks unless he's supposed to."

The windspeakers raised their eyebrows at her. Ritsuko shrugged. " I won't deny it. He has killed as many people as you heard he has, probably more."

" You sure the kid is safe with this guy? I mean, he's Chinese. And Chul is kind of..." The windspeaker twirled his finger at his temple, " No offense."

" So far? Chul's been surprising me too." Ritsuko shrugged. " He won't actually hurt the kid. He's just a boy, and a sorcerer too. But have you seen him? That's about as nurturing as Chul gets, and believe me, that's _very _generous of him."

" Well, for my peace of mind, I think I'll still keep an eye on him as long as that kid's with him."

" No problem."

Matt sighed. " I wish the boy had his phone number or something."

oO

It was the most dismal Friday ever to be experienced. Syaoran was obviously still not in school, and when Terada took roll he frowned at Syaoran's empty seat. Yamazaki was also worried, glancing over once in a while at Sakura, who noted this but did not really react to it. Outside it was dark and gray and wet, for the night's rain had not ended and seemed only to get more intense.

She wished there was some way for her to know that Syaoran was okay. She had strange dreams that night, dreams of this woman speaking to a boy, calling him Nezha. Somehow she knew that this was Nataku, the boy god of tricks. Nezha had the trademark red cloth around his waist and the cosmic ring over his shoulder. The woman looked like a fairy of some sort, with long flowing white sleeves and a growing halo around her. They seemed to be standing on clouds, with the midnight sky above them. Sakura could not hear what they were saying, but it seemed the entire dream consisted of the two of them talking to each other.

The dream had felt like the dreams she had of the Final Judgment. She could not fathom what the dream meant, but she knew it was significant somehow. There was a kind of sadness about the dream, a deep loss, a kind of sacrifice associated with it.

She was frightened. She was terrified for Syaoran. It made her feel dazed, and she barely registered as the day went by and Tomoyo called her for lunch, back to class, to take out books, and to head home. Eriol was not in school since he did not have to be. Yamazaki left Chiharu to come to Sakura and asked her if she was okay, but as Sakura answered him she barely even heard the question.

" Did you find him?" Yamazaki asked after a long pause. Tomoyo was already beginning to lead Sakura away.

" Iie." Tomoyo replied.

The girls departed. Behind them, Yamazaki frowned.

" Hey," Chiharu came up behind him, " Want to come to the mall with us?"

" In this weather?" Yamazaki looked up at the sky doubtfully. " Isn't it a little bit, well, wet?"

" They're having a grand opening. It's supposed to have a lot of cool stuff." Chiharu glanced up at the sky. " Besides, it's on the way home. We'd just drop into the store for a break on our way or something."

" I don't know..."

" You don't have to come if you don't want to." Noako told him. " But we all kind of have to take our minds off of Mr. Punctual over there," She tilted her head in the direction of the classroom windows. " Chiharu-chan told us about what happened at the park."

_Right._ Yamazaki thought dismally. _The park._

" Can't believe there was a fire over there and it's not on the news." Rika said to the girls. " Where's Sakura-chan and Tomoyo-chan?"

" They're gone." Yamazaki replied. " Left before you came."

" Aw."

" I'll come with." Yamazaki reached to his bookbag strap. " Let's go."

oO

" I'm thinking about heading over to his apartment." Eriol told his guardians.

" What for?"

" Maybe I can find him by using something to link to him." Eriol replied.

" You can do that?"

" It's a long shot." Eriol sighed. " It's not done often."

" Do you think you should ask Sakura to help you out?" Nakuru asked.

" That would probably be best." Eriol replied. " She is very powerful now. I could use her help. But first I think we'll head over to his apartment first and see what we can find there."

" Go call her." Nakuru told him. " She would want to help in any way she could."

" Un." Eriol picked up the phone.

Sakura was much more pleased with this idea than doing nothing.

" Daijoubu, I'll head there now."

" I'll meet you there then."

oO

Syaoran had a terrible headache, and it took Chul a while to figure it out. The boy kept grabbing his head and moaning. Sending in the soothing waves seemed to help a lot, and the boy relaxed far more than he had all night.

Deciding to test his luck, Chul kept sending the waves. The boy was in such a state of bliss that he actually smiled and sighed contentedly. Chul felt bad that he did not start this earlier.

Outside Matt clicked with his mouse and waited for the bar to fill up.

" What the hell did the kid do to this computer?"

A satisfying clinging sound rang from the computer.

" Oh good. Now, the internet…"

" Kids are heading home from school." Ritsuko looked out the window. " I remember when I used to be that age. Except that time was…well, I didn't go to school."

" Got the internet." Matt clapped. " Well, at the very least the kid could say he got his computer back from this ordeal."

" Cool. Maybe I could check my email after you."

" I gotta say though, kid's clever. It was a creative way to partition the system."

" Didn't it not work though?"

" Well, yeah, but it showed more promise than the traditional way of partitioning. Ooh, stocks are up for Dow Jones."

" That means you're reimbursing me, yes?"

" I already said we would. But if you mean that I'll reimburse you for everything else, in your dreams."

Ritsuko laughed.

" Hey look, China got selected for the Olympics in 2008."

" Oh man, that means we'll never hear the end of it."

" Who got 2004?"

" Athens, Greece. That kind of sucks. It's better than having it in New York though."

" New York is trying for 2012, right?"

" Don't know. I hope they don't get it. New York doesn't need any more traffic. That would just stink."

" Really have to keep up with the news."

" Yeah."

" Ritsuko!" Chul called out. " Ritsuko, get in here!"

" What now? What's wrong?" Ritsuko entered the room.

" Kid's covering his ears. Look." Syaoran was. " Test his hearing?"

" Hm." Ritsuko held her hand to Syaoran's forehead. Syaoran blinked, eyes wide but unfocused.

" Might be hearing something." Lightning flashed, followed by a low rumble. " Xiaolang? Xiaolang, can you hear me?"

The boy did not respond, except to blink twice.

" Might just be buzzing." Ritsuko guessed. " Eardrums are getting better, but not entirely there yet."

" It seems to annoy him."

" Be glad he can hear enough to be annoyed." Ritsuko stood. She headed back outside with Matt.

" Oh cool, check out this picture," Matt moved the himself and the chair back to allow Ritsuko a closer look. " White elephant."

" Awesome. Sure it's not the dirt?"

" No, it's an albino elephant."

" Cool. Where was that?"

" Kenya zoo. Check out his eyes."

" Egh..."

The computer made a sound.

" Aw, come on," Matt sighed, switching to the other window behind the one showing the elephant. The page had an error message written on it instead of a website. " Server's down."

" What's up with the metalspeakers these days?"

" Don't know. It's probably that fiasco earlier between the earth and windspeakers. They probably broke the line."

" Ah well. The elemental server was slow to begin with." Ritsuko shrugged. " You were looking up the thunderspeaker?"

" I was trying to contact various individuals without cell phones."

" How would you expect them to have internet if they don't have cell phones?"

" Internet's a must. Cell phones got them into plenty of trouble with their spouses. They stay away from cell phones but they stick to email. Plus, I was also trying to access the database one of the metalspeakers made, though I forgot the password to the site."

" I still find it bizarre that elementals made their own internet servers for each other." Ritsuko shook her head. " But what now? And why were you looking up the thunderspeaker?"

" Because I was trying to figure out who he was. Or she was. Since I don't remember them ever saying the thunderspeaker actually _died._ Maybe the guy decided that life was nuts and decided to join the element."

" Wouldn't be surprised."

Ritsuko suddenly jerked, and the windspeakers jumped to their feet.

" What was that?"

" Firespeaker."

" Heading toward us?"

Matt cursed. " Should have predicted this. They would want to check out the apartment first, to see if they could find him. Get in there and tell Chul!"

But Chul was already lifting the boy into his arms.

" Hurry up!" He called to the others, and the abrupt shift in position as well as the lack of comfort startled Syaoran awake. The boy clung to the waterspeaker, frightened.

" Nani?" Ritsuko darted to the room, " Get the sword! Get his belongings! Those robes over there! Anything you can carry with you, dump them in the bag here. We have about ten or so minutes before the firespeaker might get here."

Matt hurried to Chul. " First things first," He told the waterspeaker, " Get the kid out of here. Elementals can't track, so if the firespeaker does get one of his belongings, he'll have to wait a bit and get a sorcerer to do the job for him. The kid is more important than his belongings. Get him out of here. Don't—" He stopped Chul as he headed out, " Don't carry him. Let him walk."

" What?"  
" You'll draw attention." Matt cursed. " The kid can walk, right?"

" Yeah," Chul set the boy gently on the ground, who clung to his waist to steady himself. Chul stared at Matt. " Why?"

" Don't attract attention."

Chul hesitated only for a second. " Come on, Xiaolang," He gently placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. The boy stumbled awkwardly. Matt cursed.

" Come on," Chul took the boy's hand. " I got you."

The boy's grip was tight, and fear etched in his every feature.

" Umbrella!" Matt yelled. One of the windspeakers tossed him hers. He gave it to Chul.

" Hurry out of here! We'll find you later! And keep your magic down. You!" He yelled at another windspeaker. " Cloak them!"

The windspeaker ran to them. " Let's go." She said.

It was still pouring outside. Syaoran was not properly dressed for the weather, for it was colder than usual, and he shivered and sniffled and tears rolled down his eyes as he stumbled a little. To his luck, he kept pace with Chul, who began sending soothing waves again.

" Get to somewhere with a lot of people." Chul said.

" Other people might get hurt."

" More will if they get him." Chul glared at the windspeaker. " Come along," He tugged gently at Syaoran. " No time to waste."

oO

Hiko frowned as he drew near the apartment. Something was not right.

First of all, the shutters were open. He remembered when he was on his way to kidnap the boy that the shutters were drawn since it was nighttime. Which meant someone was in the apartment. Someone _else_, since the boy lived alone...

Cautious now, Hiko slowly edged toward the window. He saw shadows moving, as if there were people in there running back and forth. The darkness within made it hard to be certain, since the outside was brighter than the inside so Hiko's own reflection blocked most of his view.

Suddenly the glass broke and a gust of wind hit him.

He rematerialized from the smoke into his human form as he fell.

_Traitors,_ He thought, remembering the feeling of the spell. It was definitely a windspeaker that just did that. _Other elementals. They dare stand up against me? Well then!_

Dark purpose filled him and he shot back up, blasting the window through with flame. The edges of the window began to burn.

" He's here!" He heard someone yell. " Grab that!" And a mixture of water and wind headed his way again through the window. Hiko dodged it easily.

_So this is what it is._ Hiko thought darkly. He lifted his hands over his head and a blue fire began burning between his palms. He spread his arms out as the flames grew bigger, hotter, brighter, and deadlier. _Well then, we'll see who wins. A bunch of idiot elementals, or the Prophesized one!_

oO

Chul turned around as he sensed magic being cast. Syaoran's grip on his hand tightened and the boy huddled next to him. Chul continued sending waves but he was much more distracted this time.

The windspeaker cursed. " He's already here. I hope they managed to get the kid's stuff out."

Chul continued to lead Syaoran into the crowd. The mall was crowded and to many onlookers it looked simply like a young-looking father taking his son somewhere with his wife. Perhaps to a dentist, or to a concert they were late for. Everything seemed deceptively normal.

Several minutes later the sirens started sounding and the cars had to clear out of the way for the fire trucks and the ambulances.

Syaoran kept trying to cling on to Chul with both hands, since he was still unused to being blind and the lack of direction made the boy nervous, but Chul dragged Syaoran so the boy was unable to get a hold of him.

Ahead of them Yamazaki stared at the three slipping between groups of people. He wondered if he should tell Chiharu, who was in the store looking at various jewelry with Noako and Rika. However, perhaps it was the way they were hurrying, the way the man waved the umbrella up and down as he ran instead of a steady stream that most other people have which would have hidden Syaoran completely from Yamazaki's view, and the way Syaoran stumbled and hardly seeming to register where he was going, the way he kept trying to grab on to the end of the man's shirt as if he needed a guide, something about all that suggested that they were running for their lives, almost. From the way Syaoran was not pulling back, Yamazaki deduced that Syaoran probably knew this man well enough to trust him to lead somewhere. At least it did not _look like_ Syaoran was being kidnapped.

" Girls, I have to go do something. I'll be right back."

" Sure." Chiharu responded absently.

Yamazaki began following the three of them. He wondered what had them in such a hurry, but he knew that whatever it was, it was bad.

oO

By the time Eriol, Sakura and Tomoyo arrived at the building about three floors of it were already burning. Sakura gasped as she realized that Syaoran's floor was among them.

" There's a fight going on in there," Eriol told them urgently.

Sakura knew already though. The magic was intense and frantic, and she took out her key in response.

" Matte!"

" Syaoran-kun might be in there!" Sakura urged. " Come on!"

Hesitating only briefly at this, Eriol sighed and followed. Tomoyo started after them but Eriol shot his hand out.

" Iie!" He called to her. " You stay there!"

Looking as frustrated as he had ever seen her, Tomoyo hesitated before obeying.

The two sorcerers looked around. They had to find some way to get past the police and the crowd of people standing nearby.

" Illusion!" Sakura took out the card after only a brief second to think. Under the cover of invisibility, Sakura flew with Fly up to the window, in time to hear someone shout " Matt!" and see a man suddenly thrown out another one of the smoldering windows right next to the one she hovered in front of, shattering the glass. Startled, Sakura grabbed him and, with an effort, settled him down on the ground to the side of the building, hidden from the street. Thanks to Illusion, no one saw the man fall since the card covered everything around her as well. The onlookers below merely saw the smoke and the flames on the rest of the building, and the water spraying onto the fire in vain.

" Card Mistress!" Matt gasped, and blood poured from his mouth, frightening the poor girl. " You!"

" Are you all right?" Sakura cried, kicking herself for the question at the same time. " Are you all right?" She asked again despite herself. " Kami-sama, you're bleeding..." She really did not know what to do at this point.

" I'm all right!" Matt gasped again.

" What happened?"

" Hiko!"

Eriol ran up to them. " Oh no."

" I'll be fine," Matt coughed.

"Where is the boy?" Eriol almost demanded, his priority being his descendant and not this American windspeaker. His glasses were a bit lopsided and dirty. " Where did you take Li Syaoran?"

" Chul took him," Matt gasped and fainted.

Suddenly the building exploded. Sakura shrieked as the debris rained down on them, and the shield card, in her desperation, released itself to protect the sorcerer and windspeaker. In a calmer situation Eriol would have congratulated her for her sudden improvement in using the cards, but he was first startled by Matt fainting and then by the loud clattering sounds of brick and wood and metal against the Shield card. Above, Hiko, in a rage, transformed into pure flame and whipped through the air, heading down the street. The windspeakers, in their more invisible wind forms, chased after him. A pale mist descended over the Shield Card along with the debris, and Ritsuko materialized, kneeling on the ground. She cursed.

" He's still able to go so fast in the rain!" Ritsuko cried. " Matt?"

Sakura stared at her, not letting down the shield in her fright. Eriol checked Matt's pulse while wiping at his blurred glasses.

" Still alive!" Eriol called. " Was that Hiko?"

" Of course it was Hiko, you dunce!" Ritsuko yelled at him.

" Where is my descendant?"

" I don't know!" Ritsuko flung her wet hair from her face as the thunder suddenly cracked in the sky and lightning flashed. " Why don't you go and look for him? Chul and one of the windspeakers took him! I don't know which direction they went!" She wiped at her eyes, and Eriol realized she carried Syaoran's lasin board in her other hand.

Startled out of her stupor, Sakura released Fly again while calling back the shield card.

Eriol stared at the lasin board and suddenly remembered some of the tracking spells he learned when he was young.

" Did you get all his stuff?"

" Nani?" Ritsuko cried back. " Iie! I got his lasin board, Matt had his lace but he dropped it somewhere, and one of the windspeakers got his family photo and his robes. We didn't have time to get anything else!"

Panicking more than he ever had before, Eriol tried to calm his brain and consider what was most important at the moment. _The person. The point of the items is to hide the person, but the person is definitely most important._

" I'm going to help Sakura-san! You heal him! And take care of her!" He pointed at Tomoyo, who ran to the group. Ritsuko wrapped her arm around the girl to hold her close while she hurried to Matt. Eriol left the windspeaker's side to follow Sakura. He hoped that no one will be hurt after this. Too badly, anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

Song of Thunder

Chapter 9

It no longer mattered that everyone could see the flying flame shooting through the air barely ten meters from the ground, nor did it matter that everyone could see Sakura chasing after the flame, her white wings splattering rainwater as it flapped.

Sakura was aware of Eriol running behind her, of the windspeakers in their elemental forms chasing after the firespeaker, some of them diving under her wings to give her more altitude and momentum.

_Water is not enough!_ They were not exactly speaking, but she could understand their dialogue. _Hiko is too powerful! We need something colder!_

Gritting her teeth, Sakura pulled out the Freeze Card. The magic shot towards Hiko, freezing the raindrops as it passed and filling the air with cold mist. Hiko suddenly materialized and shot a red hot flame towards her. In panic, the windspeakers dove in front of her. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut on instinct, and a bright glare flashed through her eyelids as a blast exploded right in front of her. She was knocked back in the air, and when she opened her eyes she saw two figures falling rapidly down before smashing into the ground with an ominous crack. The Freeze card, battered and defeated, withdrew back to its mistress.

Frightened, Sakura drew the shield card again. Hiko sneered at her.

" So this is the famous Card Mistress."

But he was not impressed at all by this little girl, and unlike with Chul he did not bother saying any more. Instead he merely held his arms out in front of him, and all hell broke loose.

Below Syaoran, who sensed Sakura nearby and also felt, distinctly, the card losing against Hiko's fire, began dragging Chul back, angering the waterspeaker.

" Get going!" He yelled at the boy, despite the fact that the child could not hear him. People were screaming and there were sirens everywhere, adding to the panic Chul was already consumed by for the child's safety. He did not even sense the Card Mistress not a few meters away from them, with Hiko having full view of Syaoran. " Can't you see that you're in danger!?"

But Syaoran was focused on that aura in the sky, and he was afraid. Chul looked up for inspiration and a way to calm his rage, but his heart nearly stopped when he suddenly realized that Hiko and the Card Mistress basically right next to them.

He cursed, and his terror increased tenfold. " That Card Mistress stands no chance!" Chul cried to the windspeaker. He saw how the flames evaporated the rain and almost seemed to puncture the clouds, despite being miles below them. _If she loses Hiko will have no reason not to look down, and he'll see the child!_

The windspeaker was terrified. " The others!" She cried.

The Card Mistress was hit and her shield shattered into magic with an ominous boom. Syaoran suddenly lunged forward, and it was only Chul's quick reflexes that allowed him to keep the hold on the boy. He dove down and wrapped his other arm tightly around the boy.

" Kuso!" Chul yelled. " The kid suddenly has no self-preservation instincts!" He cursed again as the boy actually began fighting him, and to his dismay electricity began flashing along the boy's body. He held on despite the pain lacing through his body by the shocks. _Idiot Chinese, idiot Chinese, they probably won the Korean War by racing into battle without any thought for themselves and scaring the hell out of the Americans. In fact, that's probably just what happened. Do they still teach their kids to plunge headfirst into danger or is this kid just mental?_

The Card Mistress fell to the ground limply, and Syaoran cried out. It was the first time he spoke, and while Chul would have given anything to hear the boy talk before, now he wanted nothing more than the idiot brat to be silent. Above, Hiko suddenly turned as he sensed more elementals nearby. He followed the distinct cry of a child and his eyes immediately directed to Syaoran and he paused, almost in disbelief, before a malicious smile graced his features.

Overwhelming fear flooded Chul's heart. He could not remember the last time he was so terrified. " Get the boy!" He called to the windspeaker, but Hiko was more crafty than the waterspeaker gave him credit for. With an easy flick of his wrist the flames hit the windspeaker, knocking her brutally into the store behind them.

Chul whipped his head back around. He realized Hiko knew that Chul was going to fight him anyway, therefore he took out the windspeaker first, who was also much weaker. Hiko was forcing him to leave the child...alone...

He had no choice. Chul thanked the rain quickly, first realizing what a blessing this storm was, before shooting into the sky to meet Hiko. He prayed that if the boy must run to the Card Mistress that hopefully the girl was well enough to run, because there was no way he could hold Hiko off for long. The rain helped greatly, for, surrounded by his element, the grounds were more even, but Hiko was as powerful as the prophecy said he would be.

_We meet again, Park Chul,_ He heard Hiko greet him malevolently, as he merged into the rain and clouds and the searing heat of Hiko's fire began to evaporate them and separate the vapor into air, _As thankless as ever for your good fortune, and helping a good for nothing brat._

As pain flooded Chul's senses, he barely registered that Hiko spoke to him. This time he fought from fear, fear for the boy. He had to stall for as long as possible. Every minute was precious…

oO

_" After days of fighting a conflagration with no end in sight, the fire in Hong Kong was finally stopped—"_

" Hm?" Touya blinked through a mouthful of tea. He swallowed with a gulp. " Hey, the fire in Hong Kong stopped."

Yukito froze. " Nani?" He looked at the television. " It stopped?"

" Uh…that's good…isn't it?"

_" …so far we have yet to find any survivors, some family members are still unaccounted for. The area is entirely flattened, and it may take a few days before we can go through all the debris here…"_

" The fire was maintained by the firespeakers." Yukito looked at Touya.

" The fire stopped." Touya blinked. " That means—"

Yue had already transformed when he started heading out the door. Touya ran after him.

" Where are you going?" He yelled.

" Sakura!" Yue had time to reply, before he dove out into the pouring rain.

He had felt Sakura's aura grow as if she were using magic as soon as he realized Hong Kong was no longer ablaze. He knew instantly that this did not bode well, and with this knowledge he flew toward the girl as fast as he could. It was in the direction of the mall, and as he approached he started hearing the faint sirens and cries of people below, along with the smell of smoke and gas vapors. Soon he saw the distant building burning and the smoke rising into the clouds, as if merging with them. It was Syaoran's apartment building.

_Oh no..._

As he flew past the building he saw that up ahead Eriol was running, not caring if people noticed his staff at all. Then Sakura's aura grew and he felt a flash of fear from her. It was in the direction of the mall, most definitely. Why would Sakura pick the mall? Why would anyone...

Sakura's presence suddenly wink out, and other magical auras flooded Yue's senses as the windspeakers dropped their cloak and started attacking for real. There were some powerful windspeakers around, and there was that waterspeaker who Yue could feel almost as strongly as an average sorcerer. Something was very wrong, and he had to get to her quickly in case that winking out was not just her fainting but something worse...He sensed Kero flying ahead of him, also in his true form. Far ahead he thought he could see the struggling forms of Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun.

There was fire everywhere, and not only did it seem that the rain was not affecting the fire, it seemed the fire was affecting the rain, making it disappear inches from the tip of the fluttering flames. The heat rose heavily and the smoke burned at Yue's eyes. The mall was completely ablaze at this point, and he could see people running around, trying to find each other, trying to put out the fire, while above in the air Chul and Hiko…

_Chul?!_ Yue looked down. Chul was with the boy. If Chul was fighting Hiko where was the boy?

He saw Sakura on the street, her body still and slightly crooked. Fear and worry gnawed at him. Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun were already at her side and he saw Eriol rush to her. He dove down and circled above the two of them before landing. Sakura moaned and coughed. She was badly burnt.

" Syaoran-kun…"

" Don't worry about him now." Eriol looked up at Yue. " She'll be fine, once we drag one of the waterspeakers over here. I'm going to help Park. You take her someplace safe."

Yue gently gathered the girl into his arms. As he stood, he saw Syaoran standing across the burning street. The boy was swaying a little, stumbling, but he seemed afraid to go anywhere.

" This is way out of our league." Ruby commented. " This is out of Eriol-sama's league. And if Sakura couldn't stand up to that guy what the blazes does he think he's doing?"

Yue looked up. Chul and Hiko were still fighting, and it seemed they were matching each other. Chul was dodging all of Hiko's blows and Hiko was blocking all of Chul's, which was not a good strategy except the firespeaker had to, for Chul was throwing his attacks so quickly there was no way for Hiko to dodge. Sakura turned her head weakly and stiffened in Yue's arms as she saw Syaoran as well.

" Syaoran-kun...!"

" Get the kid," Spinel told Yue, " And you guys hightail out of here. We're joining Eriol-sama." He and Ruby Moon flew up into the air.

But as the moon guardian began to head toward the boy, to both of their surprise Yamazaki suddenly raced into the scene and ran to Syaoran. He grabbed onto Syaoran's shoulders and looked over his shoulder to glance fearfully at Yue and Sakura. Syaoran pulled away from Yamazaki in their general direction, but his eyes flickered back and forth, confused. He no longer could sense Sakura clearly, with all the fighting going on, and he had no clue which direction to turn.

" Go with him!" Sakura cried out weakly. " Go…don't stay…you can't...I'll be fine...go, onegai,"

As if hearing her plea, Syaoran hesitated for only a moment before he reluctantly allowed Yamazaki to lead him out of sight.

The windspeakers have joined in the fight, and Ritsuko materialized above them before dropping to the ground.

" Ow!" She cried, as pain shot up her leg. " The Card Mistress?" She cocked an eyebrow.

" Heal." Kero told her. Yue lowered the girl down. " Now."

Ritsuko did a sloppy job, though she was naturally a good healer so while Sakura was still bleeding a little from the impact with the ground, the burn was completely gone.

" I have to go help Chul. Take the girl as far away from this place as you can."

" Hai."

Ritsuko shot into the air to Chul's side.

" I have to help Syaoran-kun," Sakura insisted, starting to stand up.

" You cannot." Yue told her, his hold on her firm. " I'm taking you home. This is beyond what you can do. What any of us can do."

" But—" Sakura's legs faltered and Yue supported her. The girl struggled to keep her eyes open. Ritsuko only healed her, but did not recover her former strength.

" Iie." Yue told her gently. " He'll be taken care of. Look around." However, as Yue did so himself, he did not find the situation promising. Sakura looked bearily around, not seeing much, but she was too exhausted still to fight the guardian any longer.

Kero flew next to Eriol, who was attacking Hiko between Chul's attacks to keep him occupied.

" Li?" Eriol asked.

" Gone." Kero told Eriol. " I'll go after him."

" Iie!" Eriol snapped. " Let him go. We've got to keep this guy busy while still keeping our own skins intact." Several windspeakers brushed past. " He's too powerful, and he'll hurt you. Go get Sakura out of here!"

Sakura being more important to Kero personally, the guardian obeyed the command with little complaint, hesitating only slightly to glance at Eriol in concern. But Hiko was not interested in Eriol. He was much more interested in getting rid of Chul. Eriol was a minor setback, and for the moment the reincarnation of Clow was safe.

The three left the mall.

oO

It was freezing. Syaoran stumbled awkwardly as he ran, his hand tightly clasped by the stranger who apparently did not have any magic for him to sense. Sakura's aura had dulled and was muffled by the battle above, and he was unable to move because he could not find which direction to run to. Then hands grabbed him and began pulling at him. He thought he heard Sakura's assuring voice tell him to follow, and he really had little choice but to obey at that point.

It was freezing.

Yamazaki was certain that Syaoran was blind at this point. The boy kept stumbling and he was not talking, but most of all it was how his eyes were so completely unfocused. He knew that the other boy was shivering and trembling and could not tell if Syaoran was crying, but if he was Yamazaki was not sure what he would do about it.

At first he was not sure where he was leading Syaoran, but as the streets began to clear he realized he was leading Syaoran back to his home. Knowing this, he doubled his pace, and Syaoran nearly fell. Still, Yamazaki felt the urgency of the situation and did not relent. Syaoran still said nothing.

Soon the sounds of the battle faded to relative silence. There was still smoke in the air, and distant sounds of sirens, but here it only seemed like a normal fire in a building, or the police chasing down someone who ran a red light.

_I hope Chiharu is okay…I don't think the jewelry store was burnt that much, _Worry and panic flooded his senses and he struggled to think. _Can't do anything about that now, and Syaoran-san needs my help, probably more than Chiharu does,_

Yamazaki looked at the other boy. Syaoran was drenched and he looked despondent as they slowed.

" Come on," Yamazaki led Syaoran to the house steps, " Let's get you inside."

Syaoran did not appear to hear Yamazaki, but he let himself be led, tripping at the stairs as Yamazaki pulled him up. Inside the house was still pretty humid, but at least it was warmer. The two boys stood there for a moment, Yamazaki trying to collect his wits, and Syaoran...well, actually Yamazaki had no idea what was going through the other boy's mind.

He tried to calm down his trembling. It had been an exhausting run, and what happened at the mall was just too horrific. Yamazaki looked around and wished his parents were back home already. The house was empty save for the two of them.

Syaoran sniffled slightly as he breathed and two tears rolled down his wet cheeks. The boy did not raise his hand to wipe them away. He seemed to be in shock.

Yamazaki really did not feel much better. _I should have made sure Chiharu was okay,_ but doing that meant he would not have gotten to Syaoran in time. It was a lose lose situation either way. He still felt like a mess.

He left Syaoran in the middle of the room beside the couch to head upstairs and change into dry clothing, as well as bring down some spare ones for his friend. He did this automatically, because he really could not think clearly at the moment, and everything was done because it was what his mother yelled at him to do every time he came home wet, which was actually rather often. It was easy to slip into the routine now, though it took an effort to remember Syaoran needed some care as well.

When he came down, Syaoran was still standing, since he did not know there was a couch right behind him. The boy was still crying and did not seem to know it. His face was mostly stoic, but his back hunched over despondently.

_Sakura._ Yamazaki remembered. Until that man fought Hiko Yamazaki wanted to go to Sakura, but when the waterspeaker attacked the firespeaker, who ignored Sakura from then on, it became clear, somehow, that Sakura was not the main target. Plus, when her guardian angel came to fetch her, Yamazaki figured Syaoran was probably more important at the moment, and needed his help more. _I must have read too many mangas since the whole fiasco did not surprise me at all. Hm, I wonder…_

It was obvious Syaoran felt horrible though. Yamazaki did too.

" Here." Yamazaki pressed the dry cloth to Syaoran's hands awkwardly. It was funny how it was so easy to take the initiative, to take control, to be rational, when someone else had broken down. How the blazes is Syaoran supposed to dress himself? But while Yamazaki did not mind helping, Syaoran might have other thoughts on the matter.

Syaoran sniffled again. Yamazaki wondered if he would have been disturbed had his heart not raced as it was from all the adrenaline from earlier. It really was an unnerving sight. Syaoran was normally so composed. He was sort of an enigma to many of the boys, a creepy Chinese kid that always hung out with the girls and had a strange affinity for math and computers and kicking. Jack of all trades, Mr. Perfect, Mr. Punctual, and if Terada-sensei had not been so terribly nice to Rika the children would have added the name Teacher's Pet to the list as well. Seeing the other boy cry made Yamazaki want to hug him, which was not only girlish it was downright bizarre. Syaoran was not the most huggable person, and boys do not go around hugging other people. At the same time, it seemed Syaoran needed nothing short of a hug at the moment. More like a cuddle, actually.

_He's wet._

Well, if Syaoran was so frightened that he could start crying, then Yamazaki would not bother with trying respect anyone's pride here and go ahead and get Syaoran out of the drenched clothes. His back was not bruised but it was strangely discolored. Yamazaki wondered if that was important at all.

Yamazaki had to change his shirt again for Syaoran's pants, from knee down, were even wetter than his shirt, and got his own shirt wet as well. He first let Syaoran sit down on the couch before going upstairs to change again. He wondered while he was doing this how he could possibly have the presence of mind to get all these things accomplished. Maybe it was the fact that Syaoran could not possibly take control of the situation. He was blind, and not to mention this was Yamazaki's home, not Syaoran's.

" Okay, so what was that thing earlier? What happened to you the past few days?" Yamazaki asked when he came down. He realized he was suddenly very tired. Maybe the whole situation was just a dream. Or maybe he'll wake up that night and suddenly realize what the blazes he saw and what the blazes happened to him that day, but for now he really wanted to just curl up somewhere and have his Oka-san read him a story. _Good grief, I can read my own stories. Still would be nice to have Oka-san home and take care of things. Really really don't want to take care of things..._

Syaoran did not answer. He did not appear to even hear.

" Hey," Yamazaki nudged him, " What's wrong with you?"

Still not answer.

_Is he deaf too?_ Yamazaki suddenly wanted to scream. Seriously, he had been putting up with enough. He was not mad at Syaoran, but he just could not believe this was happening. This just could not be happening. Syaoran, after being missing for two days, turns up blind and deaf while weird freaks toss fire and water at each other in the sky and was that electricity sparking at Syaoran's fingers?

oO

A few minutes into the battle and Hiko suddenly realized the boy was nowhere to be found.

The fire in his blood had been so consuming that Hiko did not realize that they were fighting so desperately to stall him. Now, not only did he not capture the child, he did not get the boy's items either. From the sirens he knew that the fire had destroyed everything in that apartment and much more.

Scowling dangerously, Hiko considered his options. Chul park was still going strong, with the other waterspeaker who was apparently better at healing than anything else. He remembered her from somewhere…her name was Ritsuko, at least her first name was. He saw her before, they were always calling her to make peace between elementals as long as waterspeakers were not involved. She was not a big threat when it comes to fighting, anyway. The windspeakers could not meet him head on and settled for supporting Chul, which was actually very aggravating. Then there was that Hiirigaziwa…

_I will cripple that waterspeaker then._ Hiko decided. _That' Ritsuko. That way she cannot heal the wounded. After that I shall see if I can kill that Hiirigaziwa. Then I must return to the clan._

He then focused his attacks on the woman, and Chul raced to save her. Determined now, Hiko continued blasting at the Japanese waterspeaker. The buildings around them were already completely up in flames, and the smoke scorched at the waterspeakers. He knew that Chul could not hold up for much longer. Smirking evilly, Hiko hovered high in the sky, before shooting more flames at the other buildings so some of them threatened to crumble. _Disturbing the peace in the community, are we?_ He thought sadistically, turning his black eyes at the young Clow. _Surely this would prove to you what a true distraction is!_

One of the chunks of building fell on Ritsuko, who did not have time to morph into her water form. Lightning flashed in the sky as she fell, hitting the ground and splattering blood. Chul dove after her in water form and Hiko hit him brutally with a beam of heat and fire. With the two waterspeakers down, the windspeakers drew back, uncertain now.

Hiko looked over at Eriol and smirked. Lightning flashed around him and the wind whipped the rainwater around so that they hurt as the drops hit his skin. He shot fire at the boy, but two guardians suddenly flew to the boy's defense. One puffed into a small cat with butterfly wings and fell to the wet ground.

" Spinel!" Eriol cried, and he waved his staff back and backed away a little, signalling a retreat.

The rainwater was really starting to hurt now. It was that bastard Chul, making the water acidic. Hiko grimaced. Killing Hiirigaziwa was a waste of time and energy anyway. He could do that at his leisure another day.

He melted into flames again and shot away from the scene, letting the fools take care of the damage.

After all, his main mission was to kill that Li…


	10. Chapter 10

Song of Thunder

Chapter 10

When elements go to war catastrophe results, and the mall was in that state. There were many people who were wounded, and a few perhaps dead or dying. What was worse, the elementals were not known for their discretion, really. They leave behind the destruction for others to take care of, not always out of their own choosing, but all the same.

Eriol allowed himself to envy Sakura a little. Even though everyone saw the winged girl, at the very least she was not here now, and very few people would take note of her face, really. She was a bit too high, and there was too much movement. He cradled Spinel in his lap while Nakuru slumped over next to the smoking building, where everyone involved in the battle currently hid as the sirens and the officers tried to make sense of the situation and rescue as many bystanders as possible. Spinel was more hurt than Nakuru, which was sort of a good thing since he was easier to take home.

" It was never my forte." Chul told Matt. " Never my forte. Always hers."

_Just great. We have a waterspeaker with us but he can't heal._ Feeling wretched, Eriol rubbed his glasses. He took a look at the elementals. Chul looked worn and bloody. Matt looked even more battered, even though Ritsuko healed him earlier. Some windspeakers were unconscious and others looked on despondently. _And I have to clean up this mess and cast the memory spell._ Eriol shut his eyes wearily, sending healing magic into the guardian on his lap. He always thought that the cards would be the center of commotion in Tomoeda, if there was any commotion. He never figured that his descendant would end up being the most powerful elemental of all and that life here would be so chaotic all of the sudden.

How to deal with Hayashi Hiko? How to save his descendant without hurting Sakura, or their guardians? How to do anything at this point?

Chul's phone started ringing.

" I am really starting to get annoyed at that thing." Chul pressed the button. " Moshi moshi?"

With the sirens and the yelling and the commotion, Eriol could only hear Chul's side of the conversation this time.

" We lost the kid." Chul abruptly told the phone. " Iie, not to Hiko. Hai, it was Hiko." He paused, which Eriol presumed to be because whoever on the other side was yelling. He wondered if all the elementals reacted this way when they heard Hiko's name.

" Ritsuko's hurt. Iie, I can't face him without help. Call Dae then! Nani? Curse those firespeakers! I don't know what to do at this point. Hai, that Hiirigaziwa is here. The Card Mistress was a freaking ten-year-old girl who has no clue how to fly—they took her home. She got hurt too. Everyone got hurt, except the kid, I think. I don't know where he is. I think a friend of his took him away. Of course I can't leave. Ritsuko's down, we lost a windspeaker, Matt and the others are all wounded. That son of a—hai. I can't. Oh…your house got destroyed. Well, remember how there was this little incident in Hong Kong where basically everyone in the Li clan got burned to death? That would be what happened. Hai, kid went berserk. He's a thunderspeaker. Apparently that was the original elemental. Iie, he's really just a kid. I'm as confused as you. Hai, we need reinforcements. I knew that. No clue. Why not, I got nothing better to do." He hung up. " Where did the kid go?" He demanded.

" I…I think he went with Yamazaki, to Yamazaki's home." Eriol tried to clear his head. Suddenly he could not think. " I think…I think that's where he went."

" You know where this Yamazaki is?"

" I have friends who know." _Tomoyo, I think. She should be unharmed…_Eriol went to Yamazaki's place once, but he could not remember where it was.

Chul turned around. " Let's hope the kid doesn't go around shocking things again." He muttered. " Otherwise he's toast."

oO

Syaoran knew it was Yamazaki. He deduced it by the smaller hands and the lack of magic. The lack of magic would have left things open, but Yamazaki was probably the only likely child to try to save him that way. Other children would have run away.

Sakura's aura had flared briefly into life when Yamazaki first grabbed him, but he had not been able to pinpoint her location. Uncertain where he was, and where she was, he had stopped. And then he felt a silent urging. Sakura wanted—no, _needed _him to follow whoever it was that was leading him away…

For Syaoran, everything had gone so horribly wrong he barely had the time to gather wits together. For a while there had been a constant presence of this one aura, at once cold and nurturing. But now there was nothing. A vast emptiness surrounded him.

The boy prayed Sakura was unharmed. At least not much, because at the rate his luck has been going, that was the best he could hope for.

" Syao..." He heard. He knew there was more, but they were muffled. He turned his head.

" …ran-san?" He heard again. Then all was buzzing.

Grabbing his head, he tried to concentrate harder, but the effort made him dizzy.

" …what happened?" He heard.

_Would that I know!_ Syaoran thought in his mind despairingly.

Yamazaki sighed. He decided to try to see if he could call Chiharu to make sure she was unharmed. At the moment, he was at loss as to what to do with Syaoran. Normal Japanese propriety said to offer Syaoran tea or something, but Yamazaki was too distraught to remember that, and besides, how exactly was he to expect Syaoran to be able to drink tea?

" Where are you?" Chiharu asked. " Did you get out?"

" Hai." Yamazaki wondered how to tell her he was home without sounding like a wuss. " I found Li."

" You did?" Chiharu asked. Then she hesitated. " Wait a minute…is everything okay?"

" Well," Yamazaki swallowed the urge to start screaming at her. He was not angry at her, but he really wanted to scream at _someone, _" He's blind, deaf, and I have no clue how he got that way, and he's not talking."

It took a very long time, with silences and disbelieving questions, for Chiharu to wrap her head around that one.

" Are you okay?" Yamazaki asked. " Did you all get out?"

" Hai." Chiharu replied. " We made it out. We didn't have time to look for you…" She sounded a little regretful.

" Don't worry." Yamazaki comforted her. " As long as everyone's alright."

" But Li-san isn't."

Yamazaki looked over at Syaoran. " I don't think so."

" Where are you right now?"

" Home. I brought him here." Yamazaki wondered if he should tell Chiharu that Li was the reason for the commotion. He decided against it. " I didn't think I'd be able to take him to his apartment. Assuming he still had his keys."

" Is he that messed up?" Chiharu asked worriedly. Do we not have any idea how he got that way?"

" Iie." Yamazaki glanced at Syaoran again. " He's not talking and he's…he's frightened. And there were…there were strange marks on his back."

Chiharu took a moment to digest that. " He was kidnapped then."

" I think so." He figured it would be safe to tell her this. " I saw them in the mall. There was a guy leading him, and they seemed to be running away from something."

" Is that why you left us?"

" Hai. I wasn't sure it was him, so I followed to make sure. The guy wasn't his kidnapper though, because Syaoran-san followed him willingly."

" We should report this to the police. And get him to a hospital to have his eyes checked out."

Of course Chiharu would think of that. Yamazaki ran his fingers through his hair in anxiety. " Hai, that sounds like a good idea." Except if the fire in the sky and the man throwing ice shards from his fingers were any indication, Syaoran's injuries were not acquired by normal means. Which meant that perhaps his kidnappers were not normal either. Would the police really be able to solve this?

" Sakura-san got hurt too." Yamazaki told Chiharu. " I saw her getting taken away though. I'm going to give her family a call, see if everything's alright."

" She got hurt?" Chiharu exclaimed. " She wasn't at the mall!"

_She was flying._ " I saw her while I was getting Syaoran-san away. Look, I'll call you later."

" Matte—"

But Yamazaki already hung up the phone. He then searched for the phonebook, took it out, and looked for Sakura's number. Numbly, he dialed the number.

The phone kept ringing. But no one answered.

oO

Someone was very angry. Sakura was not sure who it was, but she could hear their voices as they drew near, high and sharp with anger. She was standing on what seemed to be a cloud, though there was hard ground underneath. Before her stood an oriental mansion. It was dark around, so the inside was illuminated. She could not see them at all, but from the voices there was a child and a woman, along with a man. It seemed like the woman was the one who was angry.

" They have gotten cocky over the years!" The woman was exclaiming. " They think once we leave them alone, give them some freedom, they can do whatever they will!"

" Please, my lady, please, it will not do to—"

" I will give them a taste of this power then!"

" Ah, _Niang_," the child broke in, " You do that, you hurt more than those you seek to punish. Lashing about will only solve problems temporarily."

" He is right, my lady. Please, calm down."

" Hmph!" Now Sakura could see a shadow of the woman through the window. She had tall hair, like that of ancient princesses.

" The mortals are causing the trouble, _Niang_, but they are also the ones trying to solve it." The boy added. " They've gotten out of scrapes before. And more allies come."

" I care not about the allies." The woman declared. " They will not last long against the Fire Child." She did seem calmer, all of the sudden. " The only one that might have a chance is that base waterspeaker. But he is a lunatic like the rest of them, suppressing his powers with things that no longer matter. Ai! When did humans suddenly become so inept?"

The child laughed. " They were always inept, _Niang_."

_Base waterspeaker._ Sakura thought. _She must be talking about Park._

" In fact, _Niang,_ one could say they have gotten less inept over the years. Back then they depend so much on us that His Majesty could afford to lose his temper when they give us ten ripe peaches instead of eleven. Now he has little power over their whims. Is it not so, Lei Gong?"

" Hehe," the man sounded extremely nervous for some reason. " Look, Third Prince, ah—"

" The Firechild often escapes to Hong Kong for rest." The woman broke in. " You are to follow him and see who is protecting him. I want all of them killed."

" Aiya, _Niang!_ That will not do. You may be free from His Majesty's order, but we are not. The child already killed the fire demon, which has released its power to all the firespeakers. We do not need any more imbalance on that part, neh? Besides, while attacking random firespeakers may be tempting, our primary concern is this new thunderspeaker down there. He's under the protection of a mortal eleven-year-old. If he freaks out and tries to bring the house down again that mortal has no power to stop him or to take care of the aftermath. And as brilliantly as Yamazaki can make up stories, I seriously doubt he could talk himself out of that one."

" He is right, my lady."

" And _Niang,_ you have Clow Reed starting to go emo, for good reason, might I add, Magic exposed in the most explosive and indiscrete manner, the Card Mistress out of commission, and a bunch of elementals heading toward Tomoeda—to their deaths. The center of action is in Japan, not Hong Kong. With the fire demon dead, the other elementals might actually have to summon their respective beasts to this world to fight the manic firespeakers. We have loads more to worry about than who is giving Hiko shelter in Hong Kong. If you must deprive him of rest, send a star deity, or even better, use your super fast finger-snap and kill them in one blow."

" Hopefully that Yamazaki would not take the boy to some hospital."

_The Card Mistress is out of commission? _Sakura thought. _But _I'm _the Card Mistress!_

She suddenly realized she was dreaming.

The voices went on talking. This time at the window was the figure of a man, who also looked like he was wearing some ancient headdress. He was a little hunched over, as if trying to bow but not quite doing it.

" A wonder that the boy has not gone crazy yet. Though I think he is too startled by everything to do even that."

" That Card Mistress would be useful."

Sakura started paying extra attention here.

" If she sets the Thunder Card free that will confuse Hiko." The child said. " The Thunder Card is not as astrong as the thunderspeaker, but Hiko would not know that. Not yet, anyway."

" And once Hiko finds out he will come after her And once he does she is doomed."

" Not necessarily. First of all, how is Hiko to know? That Thunder Card is wily. Once free, it would be creating chaos everywhere. Hiko would be going around the world several times and not be able to catch that Thunder Card. It is fast, it is random, and best of all it makes no sense. Hiko would be in over his head."

" Of course, knowing Hiko, he might just blast everything with his flame. Which would not do."

" Unless he is restricted somehow."

" And how do you propose to do that?"

Sakura was struggling to remember everything that was said, but their words, though still clear, began to fade from her memory the way dreams often do when one starts to wake, and try as she might she could not quite grasp any full phrase.

_Must remember Thunder Card…Thunder Card to distract…must remember…_

" What happens when this is all over?"

" The Japanese will have to take care of him."

" Will they know to take care of him?"

" Poor boy…"

Sakura blinked. She was in her own room. From the looks of it she had fallen unconscious. Touya was sitting by her side.

" Hey, kaijuu," He got up, " You've been out for a while. Feeling okay?"

_Thunder Card…_

" Syaoran-kun!"

" Easy." Touya quieted her. " He's apparently at this Yamazaki kid's place."

Sakura blinked, trying to clear her head. She could hear Tomoyo downstairs.

" It's Hiirigaziwa." Touya told her. " She's talking to him."

oO

The wounded elementals were able to revert to their respective forms, but it was very strange. For one thing, the wind was very slow, and the mist seemed tainted, and everything just seemed very broken and shattered.

Eriol led them to his mansion for them to recover, after which he and Chul called Tomoyo who told them where Yamazaki lived. Chul looked put out, and it was still raining very hard. The sky had darkened so that they could barely see with the clouds and the mist that resulted from the pouring rain.

Eriol wanted dearly to stay at home with Spinel and take care of his guardians, but at the same time Syaoran needed to be protected as well. Chul had his cell phone on speaker and had it in his shirt pocket. Eriol could hardly make out the words, but Chul seemed to hear them just fine.

" As if Japan isn't humid enough already!" The Korean grunted as he slipped a little in a large puddle. " Can hardly breathe without getting my nose full of rain!"

_It goes to show,_ Eriol thought wryly, _Even when things work out for this waterspeaker, he had to complain._ Waterspeakers do not fear the rain at all. It was the least of their worries.

" He's still in Tomoeda?" Chul demanded, and Eriol swallowed the lump that formed in his throat and prayed Syaoran would not use his powers. Not that he really expected Hiko to leave.

" Blast." Chul looked up in the air, shielding his eyes. He cursed. " Take a detour."

Eriol obliged.

Presently his cell phone rang too. Eriol wondered how people could afford to have the time to constantly call each other when everything was so messed up like this. His phone was nearly out of batteries.

" Hiirigaziwa-san…" Yamazaki sounded very dubious. " Tomoyo-chan told me to call you…err…are you going to take Syaoran-san away or something?"

There were questions, Eriol was sure. Like what the blazes just happened earlier that evening. Thankfully, Yamazaki was very prudent and did not ask those questions.

" We have to find a detour. I think we're being stalked." Eriol told him. " How is he doing?"

" Ano…" Yamazaki hesitated, " He's…he hasn't really moved for a while now. My parents are coming home soon and, err…"

_Indeed._ Eriol thought. _That would be a little hard to explain, wouldn't it._

" Make sure that he does not get frightened."

" Ano…how am I supposed to do that?"

" Ugh, figure something out, Yamazaki-san. If he shocks anyone, he might get discovered and you and your house might go up in flames. Just hold on, we're trying our best here."

" Know what," Chul grabbed Eriol by the shoulder. The boy winced, " I go off and distract him. You cover yourself up with some spell or something and get the kid back to the mansion. Give me a text when you're done."

Eriol looked at Chul. " Are you sure you can handle it?"

" Kid," Chul glared, " I'm in the freakin' rain."

Eriol considered. " Alright. I'll go alone then."

oO

Eriol arrived at Yamazaki before either of his parents came home. Syaoran seemed stupefied. Eriol wondered what was going on in the other boy's mind. Maybe he was still coming to grips with everything.

He gently took Syaoran's arm. Syaoran raised his head and looked directly at Eriol's eyes, and if it were not for the blank gaze Eriol would never have guessed that the boy was blind.

" It's me," Eriol stopped himself when he figured Syaoran was deaf. He gave the boy's arm a light tug.

Syaoran shuddered. He remained seated.

Letting go of Syaoran, Eriol looked out the window. He was soaked through himself, and he did not want to expose Syaoran to the storm again.

_I wonder if Touya could drive._

Touya could not drive, however, and even if he did it would be hard to ask him to leave his sister, who apparently just woke up. Syaoran would have to make the trip in the rain.

It took a little persuading, but at least Syaoran was convinced to allow Eriol to lead him out into the cold. The boy shuddered once, but did not shiver afterwards. Perhaps there was a frost even colder than the rain, inhabiting the child's mind. Eriol lowered his eyes in pity as he walked. Syaoran never spoke.

His phone beeped several times on the way, signaling low battery, before it finally died. Eriol ignored it. He wondered where he should bring Syaoran. Sakura's house was closer, but had less protection. On the other hand, it was hard to say exactly how well sorcery works against elementals, and the number of windspeakers in the mansion might serve to put Syaoran in more danger.

Syaoran stumbled a little. Eriol tightened his hold.

Sakura was not supposed to face this trial. Not so early. She is still a child. And Syaoran is still a child. How did things get so out of control?

The dim lights of the Kinomoto residence loomed before him. Syaoran raised his head as he sensed Sakura's soft aura. The girl, tired as she was, was the first to greet them, being the one to open the door.

" Syaoran-kun!" She leaped forward and wrapped her arms around him. Eriol let Syaoran's wrist go as the boy wrapped his own wet arms around her. His legs gave out, folding underneath him, causing Sakura to fall as well, but the two did not let go of each other.

Eriol took a deep breath and was able to summon a smile. At least Syaoran was back with them again.


	11. Chapter 11

Song of Thunder

Chapter 11

Despite his initial shyness, Syaoran was ravenous. He wolfed down his dinner faster than Sakura on a late day. After informing Chul of Syaoran's rescue, Eriol himself only took several bites, before heading to the phone to give the mansion a call.

Chul had not returned yet, and the elementals put the phone on speaker, so Eriol put his on speaker as well. The quality was not as good, but everyone was nervous anyway and spoke loudly.

" He's there?" Asked one of the windspeakers. " Chul hasn't returned yet. We're waiting for another waterspeaker to come here and heal."

" You contacted a waterspeaker already?"

" We managed."

Someone cursed loudly in the background and moaned.

" Matt!"

" Do me a favor," Eriol suddenly requested, " Leave the place standing, please."

" Doing our best here. Don't push it." The windspeaker seemed to withdraw to the background. " Thank you for coming."

" I heard this was Hiko's doing." A new voice spoke in the background.

" Hiko and his minions."

" What exactly happened?"

The windspeaker filled the waterspeaker in on the news.

" What are we going to do now?" Sakura headed toward the phone and demanded. " We can't just sit here. Are you people going to do anything?"

" Say, is that girl the Card Mistress?" Asked the waterspeaker. " She's got some spunk. I like."

" She's taken." Eriol replied dryly. " And she's eleven years old. And please heal my guardians, they were injured in your battle."

Sakura gaped at him.

" Aw." The waterspeaker appeared to focus back on healing. " Pity. Who is the lucky devil? You?"

" Iie. The thunderspeaker."

There was a sudden silence on the other side. Not even static could be heard.

" That will be a problem." A voice remarked, from the further end of the room, apparently. " This is not good."

" You can't blame him." Said the first windspeaker. " He just woke to his powers. It's not like he could have known."

" People, what exactly is the problem here?" Eriol interrupted.

" Egh, elemental stuff. Ow! That hurt, mind you!" Ritsuko's voice sounded. " It's not something we can really afford to worry about at this point in time. By the way, what _are _we going to do? Kid lost his family and has nowhere to turn."

" He can stay here," Sakura protested, but as she turned to Touya, her brother's grim expression showed otherwise.

" That may prove difficult in the long run. In the short term there is no problem with him staying here." Eriol interpreted the older boy's expression out loud. " But we are only worried about the short run."

" Yeah, keeping him alive," Ritsuko called out in the background, " Do you know the website for the metalspeakers?"

" Nani?" Eriol blinked, turning to Sakura. " Website?"

" What's the URL for the site Matt?"

Matt cursed in the background. " It's only with elementals, Ritsuko!"

" They have our thunderspeaker!"

" Does not mean they get to nose into our freaking website!"

" I have no interest in seeing this website." Eriol's mind was still reeling over the idea that the elementals actually had one. " We just want to know what you are planning. Syaoran is our responsibility, but this affair involves you elementals as well, in fact, you determine whether or not he survives this ordeal."

" We're on it." The first windspeaker assured Eriol. " How is he? No worse for wear, I hope?"

" He is eating." Sakura called, as she headed back to take care of Syaoran. Syaoran was eating his third bowl of rice. If it had not been for the fact that Syaoran was probably a human battery, Eriol would have been a little worried. Nevertheless, he muttered to Sakura, " Make sure he takes it easy. That cannot possibly be healthy for him."

Then again, perhaps in a way Syaoran was eating to comfort himself. He certainly was wolfing the stuff down fast enough. To her credit Sakura did not reprimand him, instead guiding his chopsticks when needed and filling his cup with water whenever she found it less than half full.

" Japan is such a tiny country!" One of the windspeakers complained. " You think it will fit all of us?"

" It will have to." The first one remarked glumly. " Firespeakers are the most destructive elementals, and unless you want to sink the island we're going to need a lot of people."

" That can't be efficient." Eriol broke in. " Are you saying you plan to bring all other elementals to Tomoeda?"

" Fire is stronger than water unless there is more water than fire. On land water is already weaker unless it rains or snows. And of all things only earth and water can beat fire and that is assuming fire is originally weak enough. Unless you want to summon a tsunami, or a mudslide, we need people to distract the firespeakers and hopefully bring them out to the east. If not we'll bring them to Mongolia and take care of them there."

" Wait, Mongolia? Are you nuts!" And the windspeakers started shouting at each other. " It's all plains!"

" More area and freedom. I agree with him." Matt told the others. " They're not stupid enough to go scuba diving in the Pacific. Not to mention the earthspeakers have more leverage there."

" They won't hang around in Mongolia or the Pacific for long. Where the kid is they will swamp back. Unless you want to take the kid out of Tomoeda?"

" I object." Eriol interrupted immediately. " Syaoran is not leaving Tomoeda until this situation is settled."

" Hey!" Touya protested. " What about the city?"

" Hush," Yukito patted Touya's arm, " He has other concerns."

" What concerns?"

" You honestly think you can take care of the child better than we can."

" It is not that. Right now what is keeping Syaoran safe is his feeling of security. You take him out of Tomoeda he will not only get himself killed, you will be killed along the way. Not to mention I cannot imagine what that Korean waterspeaker might do to him in a fit of temper."

" Chul is not going to hurt a ten-year-old!" Ritsuko protested.

" You know that. I do not. And right now I am the only family he has left." Eriol allowed that to sink into both sides. " I want you to take care of Hiko, but Syaoran will remain under my, and the Card Mistress's, care."

" You do realize that at some point you will have to relinquish him to us." Matt's voice was closer to the phone now, and it seemed he had taken over the speaking. " He is one of us, and not one of you, and certainly not one of your cards, Clow."

" That is the long run. As I said, we are only worried about the short run."

" You realize this makes it very complicated," Matt reasoned, " We have this big coordination thing going on."

" We will always have it." Eriol replied. " Only this time, you can concentrate on getting rid of Hiko. Now I want to know what steps are being taken to drive Hiko to Mongolia."

" Crowding a bunch of speakers and going to try to overwhelm them if possible at all, although we were thinking more along the lines of coming up with a plan once everyone gets here."

There was a loud crashing noise, and Chul's voice resonated through the speakers.

" I want it standing, please." Eriol reminded them.

" You'll have your bloody house standing," Matt muttered, " Chul, what's with you?"

" I swear! Japanese streets! It's a wonder anyone can freaking walk through these alleys—"

" Are you alright?" Ritsuko asked. " You're bleeding a lot. Here."

" You ran into Hiko?"

" Of course I ran into Hiko. Ow! What kind of healing is that?"

Eriol leaned back. Syaoran was done, and Sakura led him to the sofa to sit down more comfortably. Touya sighed.

" I don't get any of this. I'm just going to prepare my room for him."

" I'll help Sakura take care of him, unless you need help?" Yukito asked.

" I'm fine. Kid probably needs all the magical auras he could get."

_Good point._ Eriol blinked. _Perhaps Syaoran was calm because of Sakura's presence. Though that did not entirely explain his attitude at Yamazaki's._

Syaoran wobbled a little as he walked, probably thrown off balance by the presence of Kero floating around him. Strangely enough the guardian was mostly silent all throughout the conversation, not even touching Syaoran's food while the boy ate, as he probably would have normally done.

" How's the kid, Reed?" Chul asked.

" He just finished eating."

" Good. At least that part is taken care of."

" Listen, we're still working on things. We're going to use your phone to make a few long distance calls, and try to contact the others through the website. Probably would be best if you stay over there and we stay here," this time it was Nakuru who spoke. " They have a scout working on keeping tabs on the firespeakers and the windspeakers are cloaking the place. One of them is heading over to your side to cloaking your area, but it might help if the sorcerer magic were split."

" I agree. As long as you two are well," Eriol inquired, " You can take care of things there, hai?"

" Hai." Spinel affirmed. " Keep the kid calm. We don't want him blowing the girl's house down."

" He's calm."

" Well it's getting late. Let the kids go to sleep." To Eriol's surprise, it was Chul who said this.

" Alright."

" We'll take care of things here." The Korean assured him.

Eriol pressed the button, cutting off the connection. Syaoran looked in his direction.

There was an ominous howl outside and the rain splattered against the windows heavily. Fortunately, no one could sense the windspeaker outside, which probably meant Hiko could not either. After a moment the windspeaker left.

Sakura took Syaoran's hand in hers. Syaoran's eyes seemed to look through her, the way unseeing eyes do. He seemed to know where she was though. Touya came downstairs.

" We better all get some sleep." He said. " It's been a long day."

oO

The horses were restless, prancing about with smoke billowing from their nostrils and red eyes flaring. Hiko stopped in front of one. The horse shook her black mane and snorted, causing another gust of smoke to puff out. The heat in the field caused all of them to sweat, and being the best horses, their sweat was as red as blood.

" How to find him?" Hiko asked. " We have managed to offend all other elementals. They are all working to hide him. Pillage and plunder may instigate fear but that will be a waste of time and energy while the child learns to control his powers."

" The Li clan is strong because of the connection between members." Jin replied. " Perhaps an artifact from the ruins will point to the last Li."

" All were destroyed in the fire." Hiko replied. " We were too hasty in the assault."

" The boy should have died that night. There was no way for us to foresee that he of all people should be an elemental, let along the greatest elemental of them all."

" Do not say that." Hiko hissed, glaring at her. " He is but a boy, and I will not allow the name 'thunderspeaker' to induce any sort of awe."

" That will be difficult to do, and it will do you good to keep your sauce," Jin glared right back, " Especially when you yourself lost to him at the Japanese temple. He may be inexperienced, but a young bomb is a bomb all the same." She paused. " We will have to risk what other elementals cannot."

" Which is?"

" Offend the magicians."

Hiko laughed. " That is easy enough to do. But what do you mean?"

" We will have to take out all his protectors." Jin looked at him. " Including Clow Reed himself, and all those associated with him. Whoever stands in our way we must burn. This includes…non-magical folk."

Hiko laughed again. " Very well. We shall do just that. But where to start?"

" The windspeakers have cloaked Tomoeda. There is nothing to be done about that. And though water is the easiest way to drown the island we have no way of controlling the sea without putting ourselves at mercy. Fair be, then, to start a conflagration all throughout Japan. Even if the lad is not in Tomoeda, he cannot leave Japan so easily. Not with his…condition." Jin smirked. " Indeed, it would be quite efficient. And we send a message, announcing our dominion."

" That will take some firespeakers to do." Hiko replied. " The rain there seems to have predicted your plan. It dulls the senses so that even that Park is well hidden and shielded."

" Park seems to be guarding this one with more fervor than is usual."

" Indeed. He is going soft."

" He is making it rather difficult for us to get near the boy." Jin paused. " Perhaps we can use that to our advantage."

oO

Despite Touya's suggestion, Syaoran was the only one to go to bed, and everyone crowded into Touya's room to keep the boy company. Syaoran did not specifically ask for such a favor, but he looked a little dismayed when they first made him get on the bed. It was not until they stayed for a whole five minutes when he began to actually relax enough and let his exhaustion take over.

Considering that Syaoran could not hear them, Sakura saw no reason why they should not talk in the same room. Despite everyone's weariness no one really wanted to sleep. Eriol was very worried about the firespeakers, and Sakura used this opportunity to tell Eriol about the dream.

" The Thunder Card?" Eriol blinked, frowning. " Use the Thunder Card? I have a bad feeling about that. For one thing, your magic is not mature enough to handle the Thunder Card if you just let it do whatever it wants. For another thing, even if you could support the magic it takes, we have no idea how that magic compares to Syaoran's magic, because we never witnessed his lightning. Hiko has."

" But Syaoran is weakened." Sakura replied. " And maybe we can let Syaoran channel power into the Thunder Card. Make it more confusing."

" I doubt the Thunder Card would appreciate that." Kero told her. " You are the master."

" So I should be able to say who they listen to, right?" Sakura pointed out. " And I trust Syaoran-kun. He won't steal the card from me even if he could."

" But what if the card has other ideas?" Touya asked. " Maybe it wouldn't want to follow Syaoran's orders."

" It's not going to follow orders. It's going to just run around randomly. All I'm saying is it will take Syaoran's magic as an energy source."

" Risky." Eriol shook his head. " As thunderspeaker Syaoran is already automatically Lord of Thunder. If you let the card have its way it will choose Syaoran as its master."

Sakura looked a little lost at that.

" Syaoran will give it back to her." Yukito suddenly spoke.

" Hm?" Kero glared at Yukito. " You hold too much faith in the kid."

" And you too little." It was obvious now that it was Yue's words, not the teen. " You underestimate his affection for her."

Sakura blushed at that, however even Touya ignored the words to listen to what else Yukito had to say. " The boy will give Sakura the card at the end if all goes well. If all does not and he dies, the Thunder Card will return to Sakura automatically, because she is its rightful owner. Besides, even if he does not, though it would be more likely, though very improbable, that he _could _not, give it back to Sakura in the end, it is still more important both for all of us and for the world at large that Syaoran is offered all the protection he could get."

Eriol looked at Sakura. " If you are willing to risk it, Sakura-san," He told her seriously, " I think this is the best thing you can do to protect Syaoran, though I personally am not happy about it."

Sakura's lips twitched a little and she looked a little sadly at the boy's now sleeping figure. " I think I'll take the chance." She said. " He's already done so much for me. And now that his life is in danger, it's the least I can do for him."

Eriol smiled at her. Sakura's heart is pure, there is no doubt of it. He looked at Syaoran's huddled body, a small lump on Touya's bed. " Somehow we must tell Syaoran about this plan. He might not react well if all of the sudden he feels his energy being drained."

" How?" Sakura asked. " He can't hear us. Do we write on his hand or something?"

" That will take a pretty long time." Touya opined.

" We are sorcerers." Eriol smiled grimly at Sakura. " We can use the Dream Card."

" Oh!" Sakura grinned. " I see. Okay then."

" But," Eriol held her sleeve slightly, " You cannot go."

" Hoe?"

" I think Syaoran needs to tell us things first, before we tell him anything." The wise sorcerer explained. " He just lost his family, Sakura-san."

A grim silence. Sakura looked at him with watery eyes. " I can go. He trusts me."

" Perhaps. But have you given him your answer yet?"

Sakura blushed. Touya growled slightly but only Kero and Eriol heard.

" Some things he cannot tell you Sakura-san, no matter how much he cares about you or trusts you. Not until you give him an answer. And as I said to the elementals, I am his family." Eriol looked at her sadly. " There really is no telling what his reaction is. He might be sorrowful. He might be enraged."

" He won't hurt me!" Sakura gasped. " How can you say that?"

Eriol sighed. " You are young." He told her. " Someday you will understand, but trust me that this time you are not the one best suited to help him. If only because of his feelings for you."

oO

" You are worried about him."

" Iie." Chul spat. " I am most definitely not worried for that runt."

" You totally are. Admit it. And he's a sweet child."

" Sweet, as if! He never talked, never acted, never did anything. Sweet, my eye."

Ritsuko laughed despite the gravity of the situation. Several earthspeakers had their laptops out, while a windspeaker had a huge map spread out over the floor since there was no table big enough. It had all the Japanese islands on it, and he was marking the map with a sharpie while the earthspeakers announced the terrains in each area and the population there. Ritsuko was helping the earthspeakers project the mental images to the windspeaker so that the markers were more accurate.

" Come on, you are worried. You're thinking, they are a bunch of ten or eleven-year-olds trying to protect a blind, deaf, mute, and newly born thunderspeaker from the prophesized Fire Child. I know you too well. Fine, I'll meet you halfway. You're worried about him, but that does not mean you care about him. Happy?"

Chul glared at her. " Wily woman. I know what you are thinking. That boy means nothing to me."

" Indeed. Is that why you were out in the rain for about two hours after Clow called you to tell you the boy was retrieved?"

" I did it so that Hiko is thrown off course! Those gakis can't shield themselves for their lives. Literally!"

" Whatever you say, Chul-kun."

" That part is mountainous. It's surrounded by swamp. Really bad soil, and lots of water flooding in every summer. Lots of catfish there, also." One of the earthspeakers told the windspeaker. " It's about sixty acres, give or take, since the farm is situated between two mountain ranges that form a kind of bay on land."

" Do you want to go over there and check on him?" Ritsuko asked sweetly.

Chul glared.

" East of which is empty plate." Another earthspeaker was saying. " You might want to keep that in mind, guys, before you start any earthquakes in that area. It's completely carved in."

" Japan's land is pretty crappy for us." Another earthspeaker muttered, with a heavy Arabic accent. " Mind you, nothin' against Japan nor anythin'"

" Yeah how did they get their mountains without going whacked?" Another earthspeaker commented.

" They come from volcanic eruptions." Another earthspeaker told the other two. " Constantly sliding, the plates."

" And they don't even have good soil. They have to go up to the mountains to get good soil and bring it down for the rice patches." Chul muttered. " They should just give up the rice patches. Who needs their sushi?"

" How about we raise a wall of seawater?" One earthspeaker ignored Chul's comment.

" This isn't the Ten Commandments, Bahiyaa."

" I like that." Ritsuko laughed. " Raising a wall of seawater. How do you suppose that will help? You think Hiko wouldn't just burn his way through?"

" Just saying. It's impossible to really do anything meaningful on these islands. First of all Japan is too crowded, and second of all it has enough earth tremors not to need our input. What else are we supposed to do? It's a wonder the Clow Cards chose this place to cause havoc. As if Japan doesn't have enough natural disasters already. They already have volcanos, all they need are hurricanes and a few tornados and you got yourself a land of destruction."

" Hey, we do decent construction, thank you very much! It's not like the earth tremors destroy everything like they did in 1995. That one was bizarre. But low frequency, people. Barely felt. Lower than a 4 on a Richter scale. It's seriously not that bad. And practicing magic is about as problematic in Japan as it is in any other country."

" Oh certainly," Chul quipped, " But it still remains that if we are going to have an elemental war in any situated area Japan is not the ideal choice."

" That much is true. Russia and Mongolia are much better." Said the mapper. " Mongolia has a lot of empty plain but Russia is cold and might be better. Plus I'm Mongolian and I really have very little interest in paying higher house insurance."

" You have insurance programs there?" Chul blinked at him.

" You have houses there?" Matt stared in disbelief.

" Oi!" The mapper exclaimed. " I resent that, okay? What do you think we live in, hrm? Caves?"

" I thought you live in those tent things." Matt blinked. " You don't live in those tent things?"

" A lot do, truthfully." The mapper admitted. " But we do have cities, and people don't need to live in tents there. We have buildings too," He glared, " And grocery stores, and anything else a city has."

" Oh wow. You get horses and cars. And horses run around like sheep. I want to live there." Chul commented.

" If only to eat horses." Ritsuko glared at him. " That is still very vulgar."

" So hungry I can eat a horse." Chul grinned smartly at her. " Heard horses are very sinewy though."

" Where did you hear that?"

" Guys, stay focused here. So we can't actually do anything _on _the islands. How are we going to make sure they don't reach the island? Or get them off the island?"

" Oh, I don't know." Chul replied sarcastically. " We can either go one step ahead of them and meet them near Korea, or we can sit and wait like idiots until they come here and then have a hard time driving them off. Hm, I wonder which one is better."

" Trouble is, we don't know that all the firespeakers are coming from China. Some might decide to come here from the US and Canada. What are we going to do?"

" Oh...I don't know. Divide forces, maybe?"

" He is right about one thing." Ritsuko gave Chul a warning look. " We cannot wait for them to make the first move. I know that the Clow Cards were able to predict magical positions, whether it is in time, event, or location."

" So ask for her help?"

" In the morning. Don't wake the kid." Chul had to bring himself to say.

" Kid's deaf, Mr. Glacier." Matt pointed out.

" I never said I meant the Li kid."

" But you meant it."

" Stop acting like you know everything."

" Guys," Nakuru sighed, " Maybe it's time for us to go to bed? I think I'm seeing a clash of tempers here. It's 3 in the morning."

" She's right." Matt agreed. " We should probably get some sleep."

A rather loud murmur of agreement followed, and everyone started heading to some space they could sleep in. Soon the house was quiet.

oO

Syaoran's dream was oddly quiet. There was a strange kind of energy in the air that seemed both calming and warm. Was it a memory, or was this what being a thunderspeaker felt like?

" Syaoran?" Eriol called. His voice seemed to carry sluggishly in the air. " Syaoran, where are you?"

He figured he would call the boy by his first name. He was not certain of the child's reaction, however.

" Syaoran? I know you're there."

Clow had been in dreams before. Most of them held very chaotic images, some memories, some warped imagination. Syaoran's dream seemed to be filled with a soothing air. Was this because he was an elemental?

There was a ripple in the environment, and Eriol had a distinct feeling Syaoran had woken from a trance state.

There was a heavy stillness all of the sudden, and the warmth dropped to a slight chill.

" Clow." The voice was very muffled and soft, but seemed to come from all around him, which was strange in a dream. Normally in dreams there was a source, where all the environments come from.

" It's me, Eriol." Eriol called out, hoping Syaoran would get the hint. The chill went away and there was suddenly nothing.

" Can you show yourself, Syaoran?" Eriol asked. " I need to talk to you."

The air shimmered a little and Syaoran appeared. Contrary to the feeling of the environment, he looked openly stricken.

" I could hear some things, you know." Syaoran told him quietly. " There's always a buzz though."

" Oh..." Eriol remembered how they spoke rather loudly in the room. " Did we keep you up?"

" Iie." Syaoran looked away. " What's happening?"

Eriol sighed.

" I get attacked." Syaoran's voice trembled, and the air shimmered in forced calm. " And then I couldn't see or hear or say anything because my throat hurt too much. Think it got burned. And then I was with these weird people." The environment tremored a little. " Then next thing I know, everything disappeared. They're dead? All of them?"

Eriol nodded solemnly. " They were firespeakers, Syaoran. They kidnapped you and set fire to the clan's property. Fire burned for days. No survivors."

" I thought not." Now Syaoran looked almost crazed. " What's going on. I'm sure I don't know these people."

" You're an elemental, Syaoran." Eriol told him gently.

" Can't be." Syaoran giggled incredulously. It was obvious keeping calm was no longer working. " Li's don't make elementals. That's bogus."

" You're not a normal kind of elemental, Syaoran." Eriol told him. " You're a thunderspeaker."

Syaoran giggled again. " Are you making fun of me? Haha, it's not funny." His giggling seemed to contradict that, but then again the boy seemed out of his wits. " I'm not going crazy. I just don't know how to act anymore."

" It's okay." Eriol nodded at him. " You're doing fine. Just keep yourself calm."

" Yeah, think I should do that. Seems like every time I go...oh I don't know, nervous, something weird happens. And my teeth start hurting like...oh pins and needles digging straight into them. Haha, and there's this guy that keeps coming near whenever I get nervous, feels like one of the guys at the sacrificial ceremony. So yeah, calm calm. Doing my best here. You're not helping."

" Gomen nasai." Eriol looked sadly at him. Syaoran needed to rant, but it seemed the boy understood he could not do it the normal way.

" Haha, Sakura seems fine. She is fine, right? I thought I felt her aura wink out for a bit but she's right next to me. Hey, how come she's not here?"

" I told her I needed to talk to you."

" Good. So she's not coming?"

" Iie."

" Good. Good. Don't let her come here. Don't let her see me like this."

" I won't." Eriol promised.

Syaoran giggled again. The air tremored a little, but it was kept under control. " Haha, how am I supposed to go on without the clan? My power came from them, miserable as it was. Hehe, so Niang and everyone's dead. Who did that? Firespeakers? What for?"

" Prophecy." Eriol replied. " Telling of an heir from the Li clan who would interfere with the firespeakers dominating all of the elementals."

" That's funny." It was obvious to Syaoran it was not. " So they wanted to purge."

" Hai."

" How did I get out of that one?" Syaoran laughed again. " There was a big demon guy. He was going to eat me, I think. Haha."

" You are a thunderspeaker."

" Yeah, I know." Syaoran giggled again. " Thunderspeaker, heh. You're making fun of me, right?"

" Iie. I would never dream of it."

" Haha. What the hell is a thunderspeaker anyway?"

" The very first elemental." Eriol explained. " The thunderspeaker gave rise to all other elementals. So far there was only one in the history of magic besides you."

" Haha, you don't have to make that up." Syaoran was crying. " I'm old enough to accept it when I'm all alone in the world. You don't have to make up this all-powerful elemental nonsense to make me feel better."

" I am not. And I never said it was all-powerful." Eriol tilted his head. " How did you know?"

" Deduction." But Syaoran was lying. He might have been able to deduce it from Eriol's words, but not so quickly and not in this state of mind. " Seriously, I don't need awesome powers. I just need my family back."

" They are not coming back."

" Hai, I know." And he did. " Was just fixing my computer that night, you know? And Yamazaki...Takashi-san invited me to the carnival."

" I know. We waited for you."

Syaoran was crying, but he did not wipe his eyes. It was a dream, after all. " They were going to have this monster eat me. It was a demon."

" I know."

" He wouldn't leave me alone. That guy. They're still trying to kill me, right?"

Eriol sighed. " Hai."

Syaoran laughed again. It was a little amazing. Despite his loss of wits he still managed to ask all the right questions. " Who was I with this entire time?"

" Some elementals. Waterspeakers and windspeakers. They were taking care of you. Have you heard of Park Chul?"

" Hai. He's that Water Lord." Syaoran blinked more tears out and his voice trembled. " I've heard of him. He explodes babies from inside out using the water in their bodies. Haha. I was with him?"

" Hai." Eriol realized this was probably not something to tell Syaoran at the moment, but it was too late.

The environment whirled. Syaoran's figure shuddered and he brought the air back down into control.

" Is he still here?"

" Hai."

" Why?"

" We are trying to keep the firespeakers away from you."

" Nani?"

" It's why I came here." Eriol told Syaoran. " We need to use your power to support the Thunder Card."

" Haha." Syaoran laughed. " What are you saying? I don't understand you. What are you talking about?"

" You are a thunderspeaker. Sakura came up with the idea to use the Thunder Card to confuse the firespeakers by setting it free for the moment. However she does not have enough power to support the Thunder Card. We are warning you to let you know that it will use your lightning magic instead."

" I don't understand you." Syaoran was confused. " But whatever Sakura wants."

Eriol studied the poor child. " Do you want me to stay here with you for now?"

" I need my family back."

" They are not coming back."

" Oh, I know that. Haha. I know that very much. I can't do anything without them. What am I going to do?"

" We'll figure out some way. We need you here with us. Sakura needs you."

" Sakura?" Syaoran giggled. " Sakura doesn't need me. Not the way I am."

" Syaoran,"

Syaoran laughed again and sobbed. " Can't do this. Can't do this. I can't do this. Not now. Hurts too much. Too sudden. Didn't know what was happening, and Sakura...she got hurt last time. What if they trace the Thunder Card back to her and hurt her?"

" They are too interested in you to worry about a Card Mistress." Eriol told him truthfully. " Don't worry about Sakura."

" Go." Syaoran suddenly ordered. " Go or I'll kick you out."

Eriol silently obeyed.


	12. Chapter 12

Song of Thunder

Chapter 12

When morning came it was still raining. Sakura released the Thunder Card after linking it to Syaoran's prone magic. Syaoran made no reaction, but he blinked repeatedly afterwards.

The Thunder Card was eager to take advantage of the situation and despite its love for its mistress, bounded off across Tomoeda and into another city altogether, though it still left rumbles near the radio tower. Syaoran began writhing in discomfort an hour later. The pull the card had on his magical reserves could not be too fantastic for him. But a phone call from Ichiro proved to everyone just how powerful Syaoran had become.

" What the hell?" Ichiro demanded, " What are you people doing?"

" What do you mean?" Eriol asked.

" I mean the thunderspeaker in Russia!"

Eriol stared wide eyed at Syaoran, who was still grumbling uncomfortably and massaging his neck.

" What the blazes are you guys doing?"

" Listen," Eriol told Ichiro, " I cannot tell you the details, but just trust me, things are going better than planned."

" Better than planned?" Ichiro fell silent. " What are you people up to?"

" I'll explain when this is over."

Outside the dream Syaoran actually seemed pretty calm about everything. He seemed content to let others have control of him for now. Except for the frequent grumbles of complaint about his magic being drained, he almost seemed to take everything in a stride. Eriol placed his hand tenderly against the back of the boy's head.

" You have quite a few secrets we never guessed, hm?"

Syaoran might have had a few words about what Eriol did, but at this point all the boy was willing to do was tilt his head forward away from the hand and grumble a little more, scowling, and rubbing his shoulder.

" Why is he rubbing his shoulders like that?" Sakura asked. " Is something wrong with them?"

" I am not sure." Eriol replied. He took one of Syaoran's hands. " Fingers are like ice."

Yukito suddenly stooped down in front of Syaoran and felt his forehead.

" He has a fever." He said.

oO

" The horses make things much more convenient for most of us." Hiko smirked. " And they are created by us, like golems are created by earth speakers. Set them ashore. They will know what to do."

The fire steeds were more than ready. Snorting and neighing, they galloped across the foamy waters of the ocean toward the unsuspecting dock. It did not matter that this was in broad daylight. The firespeakers care little for the non-magical world, or even the magical one. Off went the herd, ten times bigger than regular horses, and as soon as they touched the wood of the port they set it aflame.

_" How many waterspeakers does it take to put out a conflagration?" Jin had chuckled. " He will hesitate. Either he leaves the child to put out the fire or he leaves with the child and offends all the water speakers. Bringing the child to the scene will only endanger the boy, what with his handicap and skittish tendencies. So Park will have to choose. And while he does we can pinpoint the child's aura, in case he does choose the boy, which he very well might, and slay the thunderspeaker."_

_" The final Li." Hiko turned to her. " And then we may begin."_

_" At the cost of many lives," Jin laughed, " But costs are just that, and they must be paid."_

There were seagulls in the sky and they circled once around the smoke before flying off squawking. The fishermen at the docks yelled as some rushed toward the fire to try to put it out, and stopped in their tracks as they caught sight of the flaming horses, who galloped past heedlessly to light up the various buildings and trees.

" Come, Park." Hiko grinned. " Will you save the child? Or will you save the country of your responsibility? Because either way you lose. You can't possibly do both."

oO

" Here, this should bring his fever down," Touya handed Sakura the pills. Syaoran took them without much complaint. " Must have caught it last night in the rain."

" Must have." Eriol felt the boy's head again. " Gomen nasai, dear one."

Syaoran coughed. He looked very uncomfortable. Sakura tucked the sheets closer around him.

Touya headed out again. Yukito sat by Syaoran's other side, his gaze on the boy strangely piercing. Syaoran was oblivious, but Sakura looked at Yukito uneasily.

Kero hovered around, grumbling under his breath, but not outright complaining about their current situation. Touya cursed very loudly downstairs and Sakura could hear him stomping hard on the floor as he headed wherever he was going.

Eriol turned around. " Is something wrong with your brother?" He asked Sakura.

Sakura was curious as well, but did not want to leave Syaoran's side. Whatever it was, Touya could take care of it, she was certain.

Suddenly, the rain seemed to pound even harder, and Sakura's cards began to flutter inside the book.

" Hoe!" Sakura cried, as she dashed to the book, which instantly calmed when she touched it. Syaoran, on the other hand, began to writhe and cry out. Sparks started to fly at his fingertips.

Eriol reached to grab Syaoran but Yue beat him to it. The guardian had transformed when the book started to thump by itself against the table, but he used his brisk transformation to his advantage. Gritting his teeth at the pain of the lightning sparks as Syaoran gripped his robes, Yue pressed his hand to the back of Syaoran's head and turned the boy's face to him. Still tense, Syaoran stopped conducting the electricity, but he continued wailing.

Then the book's seal burst open and Firey sped out. It circled the room frantically, its voice sounding surreal as it rambled, looking as terrified as Sakura had ever seen it.

" Nani?" Sakura cried. " Nan desu ka? What's happening? Why are you out?"

Suddenly, Syaoran fell silent, and Firey froze in midair, its flames not even moving. Yue looked at the window in bewilderment when the rain stopped as well, and all was silent and completely still.

Then there was a whinny, faint and impossibly soft, and a beating of hooves.

The whinny sounded again, this time much closer.

Eriol cursed. " Sakura!" He yelled. " Use the shield card!"

Syaoran suddenly lunged, Yue's tight protective hold the only thing keeping him down. Sakura barely managed to cast the shield card around the Kinomoto property before all the windows flashed with flames from outside the shield. The thundering of hooves deafened their ears and they could barely make out in the blinding light, the forms of the fire steeds that rushed past.

Firey screamed, and fled through one of the windows, breaking the glass, but was contained by the shield card. Syaoran shrieked as well, tears flowing down his cheeks. Eriol cursed and thrust open the door.

" Hurry up! Get downstairs!" Eriol yelled. " Before the Shield card gives way!"

Judging from Sakura's complexion, Eriol was right to make haste. The card will not hold out for much longer. Yue heaved Syaoran's body into his arms and Kero settled on Syaoran's forehead, rubbing his paws against the boy's brows to quiet him. They hurried downstairs.

Touya looked at them, panicked. " What the blazes was that?!" He asked.

" Firespeakers!" Eriol told him. " They let loose their steeds." He looked at the front door, but there was no where to escape to. He honestly had no idea what to do to protect them all.

Sakura drew the Watery card. " Iie," Eriol gestured to her to stop. " You cannot use your elemental cards against elementals. He looked at Syaoran, whose fingers had started to flash again. Yue was trying to calm him. An idea formed in his mind. It might not work, but it was the only thing he could think of. " Yue, put him down and let him go!"

Yue gave Eriol a startled look, before setting Syaoran down. Syaoran appeared lost for a moment, and Eriol prayed the boy could sense his surroundings well enough to know what to do very soon, or else the entire house will go up in flames.

The shield card cracked and Sakura uttered a cry as her will gave out. A wave of heat rushed into the room and Eriol covered his head, praying for a miracle. The smell of smoke nearly knocked him senseless and the thunder in the sky rumbled ominously as the heat burned his skin

_Syaoran, onegai,_ Eriol pleaded in his mind, _onegai, save us—_

oO

It was starting to be a good morning. Tomoyo, the girl Eriol had entrusted for them to take care of, had made breakfast for everyone that morning along with Nakuru. Chul was rather impressed that someone so young was able to cook so well. Granted, none of the elementals really had much of an appetite, but despite that obstacle everyone was in better spirits after the meal.

They were making good progress with the rest of the elementals and outlining the confrontation, and were just preparing to call the Card Mistress to ask for her help. One of the windspeakers was suddenly troubled and kept pacing back and forth. They had ignored her.

And then the fire steeds sped by.

Clow Reed's natural protections on the mansion somehow kept it from ruin. One day Chul will have to ask him about that, assuming the reincarnation would still talk to him.

_The boy is blind,_ Chul thought, panicking. _The boy is blind. How is he going to survive with a ten-year-old Card Mistress protecting him? _Instantly he remembered how inept the Card Mistress was at handling Hiko and a lump formed in his throat as it constricted.

Matt cursed as all the windspeakers instantly rushed out in their elemental forms. " You!" He yelled at Tomoyo, whose eyes were starting to well up with tears of fright, " You stay right here and don't move! You guardians! Keep an eye on her!" And left her to the Clow guardians' care.

Chul followed them, but it was obvious that the entire street was set ablaze.

" I can't believe they would go so far." Ritsuko hissed. " And the rain is not helping at all!"

Indeed, the pouring rain did nothing to quench the fires.

" Argh!" Matt cursed again, and stepped out. With a violent fling of his arms he pushed his palms out and jumped into the air. There was an audible crack in the air around them as the winds died, and Chul began feeling lightheaded.

The flames in around them instantly died out. When Matt allowed the air to come back, the flames did not return. However, the wind elemental leaped to another patch of ground and smothered the flames there.

The other windspeakers could not do the same radius as Matt, but they followed his example and began extinguishing the flames. Chul took to the skies to head toward the Kinomotos while Ritsuko and the other waterspeaker directed the rain to help the wind elementals control the fire. He hoped the boy was not instantly killed.

" Chul!" Ritsuko cried out when she realized the Korean was heading the other way, " Where are you going?"

" The boy!" Chul called back.

" Chul, the country is in flames!"

" The boy is more important than your blasted country!" Chul spat, and turned around from Ritsuko's frightened face.

Suddenly, across the sky, a huge white flash appeared that lit up the world and blinded Chul so that he fell back to the hot ground. As the lightning streaked through the sky it brought with it a terrible power and energy. In the distance they heard frightened whinnies and suddenly all the flames grew to the sky and dissipated, but Chul could sense the firey auras gathering in the clouds and getting sucked into oblivion.

At that, even the rain suddenly stopped, and the clouds thinned though they did not lighten. Chul blinked up at the sky disbelievingly.

The other elementals dropped to the ground and looked at each other, bewildered. Everywhere was crumbling ruin, but there was no fire, not even smoke.

Matt stuttered an " Oh my god" while swearing violent oaths, and Chul got to his feet, looking around him.

" What the hell," Ritsuko rushed to him, " What the hell just happened?"

" I don't know," Chul looked at everyone, just as shocked. " Could it be…"

oO

Syaoran shot to his feet after the pulse of magical energy. Before anyone could react he had jumped clean over the table and was heading for the door. Eriol thought his eyes had magically healed somehow, but then the boy tripped on the carpet and nearly landed flat on his face. Yue and Sakura dashed to him, but the boy was already on his feet.

His eyes were wide with terror. Eriol called his name, and Touya managed to grab hold of the child before he could go any further.

" They're heading out!" He yelled out, the first time he actually spoke. No one was in the mood to celebrate, however. " They're heading out! Let me go!"

His legs folded under him. Yue caught him as he slid to the floor, his tear-streaked face glistening. His body began shaking uncontrollably.

Sakura ran over and hugged him close. Syaoran's aura pulsed lightly than died out. Eriol paled, turning around at that, but surprisingly the boy remained conscious. He was still crying, eyes very wide, but he had silenced. Sakura jerked her head up when she sensed Syaoran's magical presence almost disappear.

Syaoran breathed shakily.

" What is wrong?" Sakura asked. " Why did he panic like that?"

" Shock." Eriol replied. " But I don't know why his aura went down. He just absorbed a lot of energy."

" That was what it was?" Touya asked. " He absorbed the fire?"

" Yes." Yue held Syaoran a little more tightly.

" I think he is panicking from multiple things at the moment." Eriol told Sakura, who held his shoulders more tightly.

" We got you," Yue murmured, but of course Syaoran could not hear him. The boy slumped more, blinking in exhaustion.

And then there was a rumbling in the distance, like thunder, but the air shimmered slightly and the sky flashed red lights.

Eriol headed toward the window to look out. Crows were in the sky, confused and startled by the chaos. There were people outside looking through the rubble. Not all houses survived like the Kinomoto's.

" They're moving away!" Eriol exclaimed in surprise. " Why are they moving away?"

" What now?" Touya cried. He really had enough of this.

" The firespeakers." Eriol told them. " They are flying right across Tomoeda and heading somewhere else. Straight past us."

" Why?" Sakura looked down at Syaoran. " Is it because…"

" The Thunder Card," Eriol headed back. " It must have lured them away." As he said this, another shimmer in the wind signaled the other elementals joining the firespeakers. " What are they doing?"

Kero hovered over next to Eriol. " Decoy." He said.

" Right." Eriol slapped his forehead. " Right. Of course. They would think of that. Here," He headed back to the center of the room.

" What happened to Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura suddenly cried out, " What if she is hurt?"

" I doubt she is." Eriol replied. " The house has protections, and she is with the elementals."

" What if she went home?"

" She was still there when we called last night. In the rain I doubt the elementals will send her home in that way." Yue replied. " Though is there a chance they would escort her?"

" Too late." Eriol shook his head. " They risked enough sending a windspeaker to cloak this house. They would not do the same for Tomoyo if she could stay. Besides, it seemed like Tomoyo went to bed afterwards, in the house."

Sakura relaxed a little. " The mansion isn't burnt down?"

" Iie." Eriol shook his head. " It is a little scorched, but I would sense it if it had been destroyed."

Syaoran's head fell back heavily. He had fainted.

oO

As soon as the firespeakers started moving, Chul and the other elementals snapped out of their wonder and gave chase. Hiko was heading toward Mongolia, diving straight under Japan to do so. Knowing instinctively that they had no time to lose, Matt had ordered, while swearing violently, for everyone to stop the elementals.

As respected as Matt was, no one hesitated except Chul, who wondered for the briefest second why the fire elementals were heading toward Mongolia. Then he realized that the thunder's presence, which had spanned the entire area of Japan at least, was last sensed in the direction of Mongolia before the pulse of energy whisked away the fire.

_It was that brat!_ Chul thought, fear rising in him as he suddenly took off after his fellow elementals. _The boy extinguished the conflagration! The Card Mistress's Thunder Card must have been using his magic otherwise it would not have so successfully concealed his location. But such a spell the boy just used must have depleted his magical reserves._

Which meant the Thunder Card was no longer serving decoy for the child.

Which meant if the elementals do not act appropriately, the firespeakers will realize the trick.

_Praise Matt for all his American wretchedness,_ Chul thought. Matt really was a genius.

They had to keep the firespeakers in Japan and away from Mongolia.

_Brat, better not give yourself away,_ Chul thought vehemently. He took to the skies and shot an ice blast at one of the fire elementals. Blood splattered as the shards struck through her. The smoke and flames that carried her died out as she plummeted, her body fading into nothing as she died. The windspeakers froze the air and gathered the flammable molecules away so that the firespeakers in their elemental forms also disappeared. Chul shot more ice shards all around him, and the fire elementals dropped like flies, disappearing as they died.

He was killing the most out of all of them, and Hiko turned to him, preparing to take him out so that the main threat is eliminated. Chul flew up into the air and Hiko followed.

They soared past the clouds to drier air, higher and higher, where the air thinned and Hiko faltered. Here Chul stood at an advantage, so he dove under Hiko to keep the firespeaker from descending to lower ground. Hiko opened his mouth, presumably to aggravate Chul with some remark about his heritage. Chul shot ice shards at the elemental before a word was uttered, forcing Hiko to block with his flames. The firespeaker was faltering.

Suddenly, Chul felt a blast of heat, and he was forced to change into his vapor form and spread out, letting the heat pass. As he reformed into his human shape he looked down. There was another firespeaker, a regal looking Chinese woman with blazing green eyes. Chul recognized her instantly.

" Jin, what a pleasant surprise." He sneered. Tilting his body horizontally he shot both hands out at his sides, and blasted ice shards simultaneously. Both Lady Jin and Hiko were forced to dodge. " Come to join in the dance, have you?"

Heaving his magic, the clouds below turned and the rain, which had been falling below them, started pouring up. Hiko, unable to keep his flames lighted, concentrated his energy into a single beam and shot toward Chul. Knowing the danger, Chul was forced to dodge, and the Fire child escaped.

Lady Jin was not as powerful as Hiko, but she did not have to be. As Chul dodged, she tagged herself along Hiko's beam and disappeared along with him. Releasing the rain so it fell back down, Chul followed them below the clouds, but stopped as soon as he passed the mists.

_You want to set a whole country on fire,_ He mused, looking down at Japan which was still smoldering. From this height Japan looked like a burnt out candle, which said something about the size of the catastrophe down below. Pride welled up in him and he looked up. _Not to be outdone._ If the fire speakers were able to take desperate measures, so should he.

Below, Ritsuko whirled around behind Matt as one of the firespeakers retaliated against her attack. Matt created a vacuum and the flames disappeared. The windspeaker cursed again.

" Blast it, we can't keep this up forever," He hissed at Ritsuko, " We need a new plan, fast,"

" We need to get them either up or down," Ritsuko called back to him. " The earthspeakers and metalspeakers can't do anything if we're up in the air, and we can kill more firespeakers outside the stratosphere."

" How the hell are we supposed to get them down or up?" Matt yelled back. " They're not that stupid!"

" They were stupid enough to set Japan on fire," Ritsuko shot a torrent of water at one angrily, her nostrils still smelling the smoke from the blaze, " And I saw Hiko and this woman following Chul up. I have no clue where they went¾"

Everyone, including the firespeakers, were forced to back away and duck as a searing beam of hot energy shot down from the clouds. Matt cursed, using the wind to hurl a tornado of rainwater after the beam, but it was too slow.

" That would be Hiko and that woman." Ritsuko called to him, sensing two presences in that beam.

The waterspeakers suddenly froze, one of them getting hit by a firespeaker in his alarm. Matt looked up. " What the, is Chul still up there?"

Then the very air around them vibrated.

" Is that a…" Ritsuko fell silent in shock.

" Holy—" Matt swore violently. " Chul what the hell do you think you're—"

And the object of their horror blasted through the clouds.

" Get in your elemental forms!" Matt hollered, turning to mist as he did. Ritsuko did the same. Before the firespeakers could react, the comet blasted down and melted out. The cold pierced through the air and the dust and debris caught on fire as the air friction fought against its entrance. The firespeakers that tried to run were instantly killed, while those quick-witted enough to attach to the burning debris had no choice but to follow the comet's wake as it plummeted into the sea below. A resounding crash of waves echoed all across them, the very air quivering at the impact.

Then there was silence.

oO

The earth tremored a little, but Eriol instantly sensed the earthspeakers doing their work, stabilizing whatever it was so that the quake could not really be felt. The last thing Tomoeda needed was an earthquake. The last thing Japan needed was a tsunami.

He wondered what just happened.

Sakura looked up when she felt the tremor, worried that another impending disaster would occur. When for a few minutes nothing happened, she visibly relaxed slightly.

Yue kept Syaoran in a tight hold, in case they had to escape. He looked at Eriol.

" Should we leave Tomoeda?" He asked. " It is not safe here."

" It is less safe anywhere else." Eriol sighed. " We need help protecting him. He is more vulnerable now that his magical reserves have been depleted."

" What are we going to do about that?" Touya pointed outside. " What the blazes are we going to do about that?"

" I do not know." Eriol shook his head. " If there is something we can do, we need more people."

But the phones were dead, including the cell phones. Sakura desperately wanted to call Tomoyo to inquire after her well-being, and the dead phones did not serve to calm her, exhausted as she was.

" What do we do?" she moaned, clearly losing her wits. " What do we do?" And she began crying. Touya gathered his sister into his arms to comfort her, but his face was troubled as well.

Eriol thought for a moment. Then he headed toward the door.

" Matte!" Sakura cried. " Eriol-kun, where are you going?"

" I'm heading out to see something."

" Don't go." Sakura looked at him with wide eyes. " Onegai."

Eriol came back and took her hands in his. " Do not worry." He assured her. " Nothing will happen to me. But I must see to something first."

Sakura did not have a chance to protest. Eriol headed to the door and disappeared outside.


	13. Chapter 13

-1Song of Thunder

Chapter 13

It was the foreign firespeakers who found Lady Jin and Hiko. Save for a dozen or so other firespeakers, everyone had perished, either from the elementals, or Chul's…comet.

Even Hiko had to take his hat off for that one. He had never imagined, for all his cunning and craft, that the bastard Korean would be willing to go to such lengths as that. It was disastrous, certainly, but Hiko had already set all of Japan on fire so he was hardly going to blame Chul for that. What he must admit, however, was that the comet, all other offenses aside, was a very effective means of stopping the firespeakers in their tracks.

The first thing that had outwitted him was he did not calculate the elementals would remove the thunderspeaker from the country. With the child wounded as Hiko knew he was, he did not think even the waterspeakers would be able to fully heal the boy.

But the elementals had moved the boy, albeit not too far, but far enough, just out of range of the fire, and undoubtedly the Card Mistress had settled the fire. Hiko has heard of her Thunder Card, how Clow Reed had harnessed all the essential elements of magic into fifty-two cards.

Clever, all extraordinarily clever. He had no idea the Card Mistress was so formidable, able to have the card encompass almost all of Asia. However, though the plan failed to destroy the child, it must have hurt the child somehow, for someone had to have extinguished the fire.

_No doubt the boy is as helpless as a newborn rat._

Indeed, had Hiko been in better condition, now would be the ideal time to attack. However, he had been wounded by that…comet, as was Lady Jin. They would have to wait.

He doubted that the boy could recover from that one faster than he.

oO

" Are you out of your mind?" Matt hollered. " What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea what kind of disaster you could bring with that stunt? If you lost control for one second, that comet could not only kill all of us, it could destroy whole ecosystems! Have you lost it?"

Chul was wearing the face of one who was ignoring everything that was said. He was rapidly moving through the streets in the rain, intent on one house. The other elementals followed, listening rather grimly while Matt screamed at Chul.

" Oh be quiet!" Chul finally had enough and whirled around. " I did what I felt was best! Would you stop screaming at me? What more do you want?"

" I expected you to be responsible!" Matt folded his arms, but apparently he had yelled at Chul because he, too, felt it was best, because the next thing he muttered was " Dude, that comet was brilliant."

Ritsuko barked out a laugh in disbelief. Chul was in no mood to appreciate that reprieve. Amidst the destruction the yellow house stood completely unharmed.

" Hey!" Ritsuko yelled after him as he burst through the gates, " Hey, what are you doing? How do you know this is where he is?"

Chul did not answer her. He pounded loudly on the door.

" Chul, you better not get the wrong house," Matt looked around. " Just because it is the only one standing doesn't mean it's the Card Mistress's, you know."

The door opened. It was Touya.

Chul brushed past him without a word, ignoring Touya even as the teenager yelled out in protest. His eyes scanned around the room and landed on Syaoran, who was lying unconscious on Yue's lap.

Chul inhaled sharply, then exhaled. He visibly relaxed.

" Alright." Matt threw his hands up. " You're going to tell me later on how you knew where the house was, but now that we know the kid is safe," He paused, then cursed. " What are we going to do about the mess out here."

" You better set up an illusion or something. I think the cards can do that, right? Otherwise this house is going to stand out. There's nothing else left standing. Where's Clow?" Ritsuko demanded.

" He just left." Sakura said tiredly. " I hope Chiharu and the others are okay…" She was too exhausted to sound frightened.

" Where did he go?" Ritsuko asked.

A long silence. No one knew.

Chul finally gave up his inner struggle and half-marched over to where Yue was. Yue gave him a glare of warning, which the waterspeaker ignored. As he approached the guardian drew the boy up, closer to him and further from Chul.

The Korean rolled his eyes. " I'm not going to hurt him. I just want to make sure he's alright."

Yue actually tensed up and cringed back, looking almost like he was about to hiss at the Korean. Touya cut in, very confused by the guardian's behavior. " Hey, back off." He told Chul.

Chul frowned, but obliged, more curious than insulted. Yue cradled Syaoran's head against him.

" Hey," Kero looked at Yue, " What's wrong with you?"

" Nothing," Yue relinquished Syaoran almost immediately. Chul used this opportunity to bend down and inspect the young elemental.

" 'BTW'," Matt suddenly reminded Chul, " The others aren't going to be so happy about how you abandoned them for this kid."

" What the hell are you talking about."

" Well, it's kind of a mess here," Matt gestured, " And we have to clean up after them firespeakers, as annoying as it is."

" I'm just checking on the kid." Chul stood up. " He's the one that did it, right?"

" Are you her father?" Ritsuko asked Touya doubtfully.

" Iie! I'm her brother!"

" Hai," Sakura answered Chul, " He's the one."

" Where are your parents?" Matt asked.

" Otou-san is in South America." Sakura sighed tiredly, then jerked to alertness. " Did the fire reach there?"

" Oh, iie." Chul snorted. " Hiko might like to boast, but I'm afraid only our friend here has the power to encompass the entire continent, let alone half the world."

" Kami-sama," Sakura half-sobbed, half groaned, " I don't think I have the wits to worry about anyone else at the moment."

" Yeah yeah," Chul rose impatiently, " When Clow comes tell him to come over to his house. We're leaving to clean up the mess." He cursed colorfully. " And take care of the kid!"

oO

When the elementals left, Syaoran shifted and woke. A few concerned probes from the strangely agitated Yue confirmed that his magical core had burnt out.

" On the bright side," Syaoran surprised them all by saying, " I can see and hear again."

He was too tired to even care if the magic will come back. It certainly will, Yue assured him, since he was the thunderspeaker and elementals never burn out unless they die. Syaoran listened with only half of his attention, devoting only enough strength to look at Sakura and make sure she was alive and healthy, before shutting himself from the world. Stray thoughts flickered through his mind. What was to become of him now? Two bombshells had dropped in his life, one that he was an elemental, the other that he was alone. A Li was nothing without the Li clan. Their very magic bound them together, in addition to their pride and in reality, mutual love.

He could barely breathe. He was not sure what emotion was dominant; sorrow or fear. He had never been so terrified in his life. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream and throw a tantrum. He wanted to find someone to hug him and kiss him and tell him everything was all right and to believe that. He wanted to feel loved. He was not sure what he wanted to do. Perhaps he wanted to do all of that.

But not in front of Sakura.

No, he will not lose face in front of Sakura. He stared at her a little coldly, because deep inside he was hurting and he could barely stand it.

Japan is in ruins. " That's great." What more did they want from him? And the firespeakers have disappeared. Perhaps Chul killed him. Matt had been talking about some comet. " That's great." He had no clue who Chul was. A Korean waterspeaker did not help. How was he supposed to tell the difference between a waterspeaker and a windspeaker? Or any other speaker for that matter? He had been blind.

" Hey, gaki!" Kero snapped angrily, " You can drop that attitude of yours! It's not like you're in the position to stuff that on us! You have any idea what we went through to get you back here?"

_Not in the position…_A new feeling of dread washed over Syaoran at that, so that it was visible to everyone. Sakura flinched as Syaoran's face lost what color was left, and mentally glared at Kero for his unfeeling words. Kero, as well, hovered back a little, realizing he should not have lost his temper at this time.

" Gomen nasai." Syaoran looked down, surprising everyone as he did it. Proud as he was, he had never apologized that way, not like one who had been intimidated into submission. He was well schooled in hiding his emotions, but everyone could see to what degree he had been frightened. _I'm all alone. They were kind enough to help me, but if I don't behave what will happen to me?_ His terror made him almost ill.

Touya crouched down in front of the sofa so that he was at eye level with Syaoran, who refused to look up. " Hey, Li-san," He gently laid his hand on the boy's arm, " It's fine, we understand. Kero-chan is just being a jerk, that's all." Kero did not protest to this. " Hey, you don't have to be afraid. We're your friends here."

Too late–Kero's words have done all the damage necessary. _Friends are not family._ Syaoran was careful now. Syaoran will do what he could to avoid being any more trouble or aggravation. Syaoran had nothing.

The rest of the day was spent using the Illusion Card to cloak the house so that it looked like ruins, using Sakura's cell phone to call Fujitaka and tell him that a lion with wings will bring him back home since the airport was burnt down and iie, everyone is fine because there was something they must tell him and it is too long of a story to explain over the phone although they cannot say the same for anyone else in the rest of Japan. Sakura kept lamenting about Eriol and why he did not return. Touya cooked what he had in the refrigerator, asking Syaoran what he wanted, but the boy did not cooperate, claiming he really was not that hungry and Touya could just ask the others what they wanted and leave his portion out. The day passed in that vein, with the child obviously trodding carefully around everyone, even Sakura, who was hurt by this. Still young and naïve, she did not understand what exactly had made him distrust her so.

Syaoran wanted to leave that night, but he had nowhere to go. As everyone prepared for bed, Touya offered his room to Syaoran again. This time Syaoran refused, very timidly, but firmly. He was not sleepy. He had slept enough. He could take care of himself. He wanted to stay downstairs.

" He's probably just out of it." Touya whispered to his sister as they relented. Yue stayed downstairs with Syaoran as the rest of them went up to bed. " Who knows what the recent trials did to him. Just go by him for now."

Sakura glanced back worriedly but decided to trust her brother's wisdom.

Lights were off, except in the main room downstairs. Yue sat next to Syaoran, making the child very nervous. He had no way of knowing that Yue had held him before, and would never guess that the guardian longed to do so again. But Yue was never sentimental, and his own desires alarmed him a little. They stayed at opposite ends of the couch.

Syaoran stared ahead of him, mind numb and heart cold. Yue looked at him and noted this change in the boy's demeanor. He knew Touya's earlier words of comfort did not reassure the thunderspeaker, and unwillingly his heart ached for the child's sake. As midnight passed and the child fell asleep despite his attempts to keep awake, Yue turned off the lights and gently rearranged Syaoran on the sofa. Despite his best efforts two tears dropped from the guardian's eyes.

oO

Deities hate being disturbed, especially by mortals, but Clow had come across them before and this was a matter of decent importance, so Eriol took the liberty of visiting his good friend Prince Nezha.

Out of all the deities, whether Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, Nezha or Nataku, as the Japanese called him, was the most approachable out of all of them if only because he loved bending rules, if not outright breaking them. He was obsessed with questioning authority, something that made him a bit of a renegade deity except he had royal blood and followed orders when lives of mortals were at stake. Best recognized by his hair, actually, since he wore his long hair in the style of the Song dynasty, his delicate, almost girlish features, and his four weapons, the cosmic ring, the fire 'chou' (which is a long cloth that is not really that firey but was red in color), a fire spear (again, not that firey but it had red tufts on it) and firewheels (which actually do burn, especially while spinning). In the old days Clow had joked that Nezha's mode of transportation could be brought down to the mortals as a sport. Never did the ancient sorcerer realize that one day some genius would actually invent rollerblades. And that was how he greeted the great prince.

The boy-god laughed. " You are hilarious. I like you a lot. Come, I suppose you have some kind of request to make."

" I wish I could say otherwise, however, you deities do not exactly welcome friendly social calls."

" Not from mortals, no." Nezha laughed again.

" You seem rather light-hearted. I suppose then that what happened down there was not as devastating as you feared."

" Oh," Nezha instantly grew grim, " I hate firespeakers."

Eriol burst out laughing again. " Indeed. You do realize we need a bit of help here. Even if we could right the damage, we cannot possibly clear all the memories. Not just Japan had been affected."

" Yes, we have that problem with satellites," Nezha mused. " I do not suppose we could get rid of a few of them."

" Too late. Probably the Americans already saw the galloping horses."

" Hm." Nezha mused again. " This I might have to ask the others. Too bad I cannot order Hiko. He seems to have disappeared."

" He is dead?" Eriol blinked, not daring to hope.

" He might be, I cannot say for certain." Nezha looked at the disappointed sorcerer apologetically. " At the very least, if he is still alive he should be out of commission for quite a while. As for our dilemma here, I have very few powers of brainwashing, since most of my abilities are attack-based. I can call upon the others to help but I cannot make any promises. And you better get down there quickly because you know well enough–time here passes much more slowly than below. One day here is equal to a whole year down there, so if you do not watch your time a whole month might pass."

" Thank you." Eriol nodded.

" Oh, before you leave," Nezha did something strange then. He disappeared in a flurry of flames for a moment, before reappearing with a thickly folded white chou, not unlike his own red one, " Do me a favor? Give this to the thunderspeaker. Tell him I am looking out for him, but the white chou is from my mother and she wove this up herself. Should help him, with him being all light and energy and all."

Confused, Eriol accepted it hesitantly, and Nezha saluted him briefly. Eriol came down. A whole day had passed below. He saw the elementals had already begun the reconstruction, and suddenly remembered again how it was possible the Firechild was already dead. He was too eager to believe that to follow his old wisdom, and, elated, entered the Kinomoto residence.

" Eriol-kun!" Sakura was sleepy, but very happy to see him. " Where were you all day yesterday?"

" And all night," Kero added.

" I was visiting a friend. Syaoran-san," Eriol took the white chou out, " This is for you."

He did not expect the boy to respond, since he did not know the boy had recovered. Syaoran surprised him by taking the chou.

" You're putting me–" Syaoran stopped abruptly in the middle of what could have been an acerbic comment. Eriol blinked at this, and noted the relatively grim atmosphere.

" Arigatou." Syaoran said with meaning, lowering his eyes. Eriol blinked again in surprise.

" Syaoran-san, are you all right?" A stupid question, but one he had to ask.

" Hai." Syaoran nodded, almost emphatically. " I'm fine."

Eriol straightened, troubled by the young one's behavior. He decided to try to cheer the boy up.

" Think Hiko might be dead." Eriol told everyone. " If not, he's too wounded to be much harm. We can relax a bit now."

It was a welcome reprieve, but Syaoran was not as joyous as everyone else, something that besides Eriol, only Yue noticed.

oO

Ichiro joined the elementals in Tokyo. He had arrived by several sea nymphs and then a windspeaker went to escort him back. The place was just as bad as he imagined.

" What?" Matt had the heart to joke, " It's not worse?" It was humorless though.

The elementals had no power over the man-made structures, since reversing catastrophes was not really one of their talents. What they were able to do, however, was regrow the forests that had burnt down, and the plains, and raise the mountains a little as well as replenish some streams. The rest of the reconstruction would have to be done by sorcerers.

There were actually many Japanese sorcerers who had gathered from other burnt down islands. Some were rather young, no more than sixteen years old. Others were very elderly.

Ichiro went up to one of the elderly ones.

" We could use a bit of help." The elder sorceress commented.

" One of the lords came down," Said another sorcerer, " Prince Nataku. I'm not sure what he thinks of this."

" Nataku?" Ichiro blinked. " He came down? He must be furious."

" Nataku exists?" A young sorceress blinked, wide-eyed. " I thought he was just a folk tale."

" Most of us thought so as well." Said the first sorceress. " He came right over there. You did not see him?"

" We were kind of busy," The young girl looked at her indignantly.

" What did Nataku say?" Ichiro asked.

" Said a guy named Hiirigizawa came up to his lair." the elderly sorcerer told everyone. " We are to take care of the physical damage and he will see what he could do about the mental damage,"

" Large scale brainwashing?"

" He's seeing what he can do, I suppose."

" He's going to wash the Americas as well? We have the US satellite staring at us from up there. Doubtless if we still had computers or televisions left we would have seen it all over the news."

" China will be having a blast." One of the younger sorcerers grumbled. " Ugh, I need to take a break."

" Restoration takes energy." the elderly sorceress agreed sympathetically. " We need to take shifts if we're going to be efficient. What about that Hiirigizawa? I haven't met anyone of that name."

" He has certain things to worry about, such as the thunderspeaker."

" What thunderspeaker?"

" There's a thunderspeaker?"

" Hai, he's the heir of the Li clan. Ten years old and barely alive when I last saw him. Apparently he recovered quite a bit but he has no family left."

" Right, that fire,"

" Hiirigizawa is the reincarnation of Clow Reed, and apparently has taken the thunderspeaker under his wing for now so if we see him at all,"

" Reincarnation of Clow Reed?"

" That works. Well, what about the Card Mistress? Is she also taking care of the thunderspeaker?"

" Is it necessary anymore? The firespeakers are gone."

" I need to take a break, or else I'll burn out my magic."

" She probably is still taking care of Li Syaoran." Ichiro mused a bit. " Progress is too slow here."

" She's powerful though, one card and all this could be returned."

" That will probably put her in a coma though."

" True."

" What's a thunderspeaker again?"

" Original elemental." Ichiro explained it to them. " Apparently the gods or something see fit to give one to us at this era if only because of the firespeakers."

" Ichi!" Matt called. " How well do you think normal sorcerers can take elemental magic?"

" Easy." Ichiro replied. " Your magic is a bit raw though. And if you're going to channel than one of each element has to do the same. That sort of includes firespeakers."

" I can't sense the kid at all." Chul muttered. " If he could channel into that Card Mistress."

" Risky." Matt countered immediately, while cursing every other word, " It's weird that the kid hasn't fried anyone already, without a mentor,"

Ichiro sighed. Matt was a well respected elemental, with plenty of knowledge and wisdom, but apparently for all elementals any gains are coupled with losses. The other sorcerers winced and withdrew a little at his language.

" Well the original thunderspeaker couldn't have had a mentor," Chul was wincing as well. " And if it's that hard to control, do you think the kid could have hurt himself somehow?"

" Well, I didn't sense the boy when I was at that house. And you still have to tell me how you knew it was that house. You haven't gone there before, have you? I mean, you led Hiko on a wild goose chase but never in that direction."

" Iie, I never went to that part of the neighborhood."

" Hai. Well anyway, the kid was alive and well, if unconscious, but his magic levels were below my radar. I couldn't feel him at all. I think he burnt himself out."

Chul gritted his teeth. " I should go check on the kid."

" Oh no you're not!" Ritsuko hissed. " This is my country, my homeland, damn it, and you're helping me fix everything!"

" Kami-sama, woman, _I _did not create the fire, okay? I don't need to right any wrongs. And you know the gaki is protected by an eleven-year-old sorceress and an eleven-year-old version of Clow? You really expect him to be in good hands?"

" The firespeakers have disappeared."

" Doesn't mean they won't reappear. They have a nasty habit of doing that."

" I agree." Matt cut in, " But at the moment we risk the wrath of magical forces. Even Prince Nataku what's it has to worry about this kind of thing. Right now Li Syaoran is not in immediate danger. And if you go there all you might do is alarm the kid. He's lost his family. He doesn't need to deal with strangers."

Chul conceded that it was a good point, while mocking Ritsuko's country in very colorful ways. Since he was helping again, the Japanese waterspeaker said nothing to his comments, in fact it seemed she had once again slipped into that mental state of ignoring everything Chul said as long as it was not important to the situation at hand. The other magicians in the sky were awed by her patience.

" I want to sock that guy. I don't care if he's the Water Lord." One of the young sorcerers muttered. He was on break at the moment and was floating on one of the cloud platforms the waterspeakers offered everyone to rest on. " What gives him the right to insult my country? He's not even Japanese he's freaking Korean, and we're suffering a tragedy here." He muttered some curses.

" He has a problem." Ichiro explained while restoring one of the skyscrapers, which took quite a bit of energy. " He doesn't like Japan or America or China, that's true, but I think he feels the need to make fun of every country that's mentioned."

" This isn't making fun. This is downright insulting. You don't insult a country when you're in that country."

" It's kind of like Matthew," Ichiro sighed, " The swearing."

" Un, that Matthew Brightman. But he only curses, doesn't insult people. And Park never insults that guy either."

" Apparently he has before. Ritsuko told me that in the early days he used to jab at the fact that Matt's Jewish. He'd make Holocaust references."

" Oi!" One of the windspeakers shuddered. " What did Matt do with that?"

" Well…Matt socked him, I think. I'm not sure what happened next but they didn't get along that well at first."

" I can imagine." Said the windspeaker. " What the hell is Park's problem?"

" Mental." Ichiro shrugged. " I need to take a break." Just then the sorcerer who had been complaining about Chul got off the cloud to begin work again.

" Guys," Ritsuko came over to them, " We're done with the area around the city, we need to move further up ahead. If you guys are floating around anyway can we take the cloud with us?"

" How far along?"

" About two kilometers."

" Should be fine."

" Yeah, we'll put it on the side nearer to you guys. You have more work than we do,"

Ichiro stayed on the cloud to save energy. Several sorcerers close by also landed on the cloud to rest.

" Someone needs to give Park a beating then. Water Lord or not."

" He has gotten better, I think, according to Ritsuko." Ichiro replied. " Not splendid, but better. His comments are less aggravating. For one thing he used to make comments about World War II. He lived through it."

" Oh?"

" Hai, his mother was one of the village beauties in Korea. Was captive and his father was one of the generals." Ichiro muttered a little. " Kind of depressing. He has a reason to hate Japan, at the very least."

" China's the one that started World War II." Said one of the young sorceresses indignantly. " It's not our fault."

" Haha," the windspeakers around them laughed, " We totally believe that. China was so bogus that if they wanted to war with Thailand they would have been beaten to a pulp, let alone start a war with Japan. And it's really strange that China started the war but Japan ended up conquering half of Asia in order to get bombed by US nuclear weapons. We totally feel for you guys but denial isn't going to fly around here."

" Still, it's not _our _fault World War II occurred." An older sorcerer shrugged. " We didn't tell the Emperor to start it. Park's taking it out on the wrong group."

" That's true." the Mongolians dove down. The cloud dipped.

" Hey!" Ichiro yelled. " Watch it!"

" Gomen ne."

" Park should get a girlfriend. He could insult her instead of us."

" Who's going to want to be _his _girlfriend?"

" Maybe some Korean. It's the only nation he doesn't insult."

" Hey!" One of the sorcerers looked down, " Don't grow trees there!"

" Nani?" The elementals looked up.

" That's a reservoir over there! Kuso it's totally gone? Hey, leave that patch there bare."

Ichiro restored the area. Sure enough, there was a water reservoir, though it looked a bit worse for wear.

" How the blazing hells did it disappear?"

" Horses trampled, of course."

" Great." Ichiro huffed. " Now I have to sit on this cloud for a while longer."

" Have fun." Several sorcerers left the cloud while others arrived and landed on it.

oO

" Alright, so the firespeakers are gone, we need to do something about the demolition."

" The Return Card?" Sakura asked, a little dubiously. " I'll use it but…doesn't take a lot of energy?"

" No choice." Eriol looked over at Syaoran. " You stay here."

Syaoran just stared at him.

Kero arrived at the door, knocking with his huge paws. They let him in. Tomoyo was sitting on his back. She looked very pale and shaken. Surprisingly enough, Yamazaki was with her.

" Yamazaki-san!" Sakura blinked. " What are you doing here?"

" I headed over to Hiirigizawa's place after the fire." Yamazaki was shuddering and very grim. " I figured he might have known something about this. There I met Daidouji-san and these two," He glanced behind him. Sakura looked over to see Nakuru and Spinel, " And everyone's a bit whacked so I didn't ask anything. But you can fix this, right? I mean, I figured you were a bit weird from the start. Syaoran-san."

" Takashi-san." It was the first time Syaoran spoke for hours.

Yamazaki started trembling horribly.

" Is your family all right?" Sakura asked worriedly.

" Hai, we didn't really get burned." Yamazaki looked around wildly. " You have a lot of explaining to do, Syaoran-san."

" I need explaining too." Syaoran looked down.

" I'll explain." Touya sighed after a long uncomfortable pause. " But as long as you two are still alive and unharmed, suppose we owe you that much."

" Sakura and I need to go," Erol gestured at the scene, " We'll be back when we can."

" I need to go fetch Fujitaka." Kerberus transformed into his false form.

" Yeah, you need to explain that too," Yamazaki pointed. He was scared.

" I'll do that." Touya looked at Syaoran a little worriedly. The boy's expression had slipped back into that mask he had been wearing the entire day.

" Yue, you helping?" Nakuru asked gravely. She was following Sakura and Eriol out.

Yue looked at Syaoran, who did not notice. The guardian looked a bit torn.

" They need your help." Touya urged. " Kid will be fine, I'll take care of him, no problem."

Syaoran suddenly opened his mouth but shut it again.

Tomoyo reached forward and hugged him. Syaoran accepted the hug for her sake, but a few minutes later let his arms drop to his sides. He had his own demons to deal with. Understanding, Tomoyo followed Touya into the kitchen where the teenager explained everything to Yamazaki.

Yue gave Syaoran one last look of worry before following the other guardians out. When Syaoran was left alone in the living room he looked at the side of the sofa where Eriol's white chou was lying. He stared at it for a while, before reaching over slowly and taking it into his hands.

It felt of energy and magic. He hugged it to himself, silent.


	14. Chapter 14

-1Song of Thunder

Chapter 14

" Hey guys!" Matt was incredibly happy to see Eriol and Sakura along with their guardians. " This is awesome. We could use your help."

" Glad to help." Sakura summoned a tired smile.

" This is that Card Mistress?" Several sorcerers stood up from the cloud. Sakura gave them a curious look, especially the cloud, which was a little tougher than most clouds she saw.

" Young girl." One muttered, while departing.

" How old are you?" asked another.

" Er…"

Despite her age, Sakura soon proved her real power when she managed to recover a small town with one cast, along with the suburb around it. It took quite a bit out of her though, so as the sorcerers moved to join the elementals, who had moved up north, she was able to recover about two major cities and part of the third before being forced to rest a bit on the cloud.

" This is a clever thing," Yue stepped around on the cloud, " The water magic replenishes the magic due to its healing nature."

" Healing nature," The windspeakers snickered, " The Water Lord isn't just a fighting machine."

If Park heard this he did not acknowledge it.

" What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

" I tell you," A waterspeaker leaned to her, " He is so filled with anger, now anger is not exactly healing in nature, or even nurturing, for that matter. They say that that's why he's so bad at healing. In fact he can't really heal at all. His attacking skills are unparalleled by other waterspeakers, however, but then again no one is as hate-filled as him."

A little unnerved by this knowledge, Sakura looked at Chul warily and could not help but feel frightened for Syaoran's sake. After all, Syaoran had been in this guy's power during his most vulnerable time.

Twenty minutes later they were back to work.

" Fire wasn't really long enough to really kill anyone," One of the earthspeakers announced, " Think only a hundred or so got injured and about seventy died."

" Better that could have been." Matt commented.

" Worse than should have been."

" We might have to ask him for help in returning the dead ones." Eriol waved to the others, " I'm going up again."

" Nani?" Sakura looked at him, but he was gone.

" Well, he won't be back for a while," the windspeakers told her, " Best get things ready when they start resurrecting, assuming they will."

" Not like them to clean up after us," Matt muttered.

" Who?" Sakura asked.

" Well," Matt told her, " Hiirigizawa-san is calling for outside help."

" From where?"

" Gods." Ritsuko's lips twitched as she said it.

oO

Evening fell and Tomoeda was back to its original form, with most of the inhabitants very spooked and freaked by the past day's events. Chul, Ritsuko, Ichiro and Matt followed Sakura, and the guardians back to the Kinomoto residence. There Syaoran silently saw his rescuers for the first time.

Chul sounded like a monstrous being. Syaoran had heard of him before, the great Water Lord who could kill infants without batting an eyelash. Each element had its own great "lord"; Hiko the Fire Child was one, though the great Lady Jin also was very well known, but more for her intellect than her power. For water Park Chul was the Water Lord, and for windspeakers Matthew Brightman was the great seer, though there were three Mongolians who were not with him that Syaoran also heard of. Among the magical community they all had great influence, though Hiko less so in recent years. These figures were all looked upon with awe, no matter their faults, and often times a bit of horror.

Chul was a tall man, taller than Touya and Yue, and actually very thin and young looking. From his appearance he looked no older than twenty-five, and had somewhat delicate features save for a very high nose and strong eyebrows, beneath which glared two sharp blue eyes. He had pale skin and looked a little bit like Yue, except much fiercer and darker, lacking Yue's purity. He was clad in blue robes that contained some shades of other blue and green and a bit of white, like foam. His hair, which was long, tied into a bun on top and was capped with a headdress of some precious metal. His aura, which Syaoran sensed as well as he could see at that point, lurked in a threatening manner, and Syaoran, still coming to terms with his situation, was very terrified of him.

Matt was a little like Chul, also very thin and young, though he looked to be more in his early thirties. In reality Matt was much older than Chul, perhaps more than a century old. His pallor was like Yue's as well, with a large nose and thin lips and strong chin. He looked much more amiable than Chul, and was also shorter, with mousy brown hair that was both thin and frizzy. He had cut his hair short and wore a hat instead of a headdress. His robes, like all windspeakers, were gray with bits of brown, yellow, and red.

Ritsuko was a small woman, also delicate, but with a much more friendly and warm face than her two companions. Everything about her was almost dainty, with thin long eyebrows, long eyes that were slightly squinty, small mouth and small nose and small frame. Like Chul she wore blue robes and kept her hair long, though she let it down, and on her head was also a headdress, smaller than Chul's. Before the other men could do anything she approached the frightened boy and asked how he was doing.

Syaoran looked at her nervously, swallowed once and clutched the chou to his chest in a defensive gesture.

" How rude," Chul commented, feeling slightly hurt by the boy's terrified gaze, " Not even a greeting."

If he meant to get a word out of the boy, he failed miserably. Syaoran looked at him and despite himself almost burst into tears. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and if Syaoran had any magic left he might have blasted the elementals out.

Yue walked forward, to the boy's relief, and stood between the elementals in a protective stance.

" No magic left at all." Ritsuko confirmed. " Can you sense us, darling?"

Syaoran clutched the chou tighter and looked at Chul and nodded.

" How well?" Ritsuko asked. " Come, don't be shy, we won't hurt you."

Sakura looked at Eriol, confused and alarmed. Syaoran, shy?

" I sense…" Syaoran looked at Chul and swallowed.

" Ungrateful gaki," Chul folded his arms, " As if I need him staring at me–"

" You, shut up." Ritsuko snapped, causing Syaoran to jump a bit. " Just ignore him. He just has a horrid temper."

Syaoran wrung his hands. Yamazaki came out of the kitchen, looking a little sick.

Chul finally turned away, unable to stand it.

" Syaoran-san," Touya purposely addressed the child by his first name to ease the child's nerves, " You should get up, you've been sitting there all day. It will help make you feel better. Besides, not like these folks will hurt you under our roof."

Ritsuko laughed, and Syaoran eased a little, but he soon revealed why he had not moved from the sofa all day, even to eat. The child's strength had been depleted.

It could not have been comfortable for the boy, especially with his magic gone like that. All magicians know how it feels, like something had been carved out from the bones, or scraped away so it is hollow inside. Chul gritted his teeth and despite the boy's cringe approached the thunderspeaker and used the only healing skill he knew. Syaoran relaxed a little bit at that.

" You have a fever." Chul realized.

" Huh?" Ritsuko felt. " Guys," she called to the kitchen, " Kinomoto-san, you never told us he had a fever?"

" Huh?" Touya peered out. " He did earlier, but it went away, I thought, after the fire. I gave him medicine."

" Pfft, as if fevers would go away that easily." Ritsuko healed him. As she stood Chul sat fully on the sofa next to Syaoran to better send the magic.

Ritsuko looked at the two of them. " Weird."

" Well, I didn't leave the house that much," Touya told Matt, " But it looked like everything is normal again."

" Without Eriol's friend though, we can't erase any memories," The windspeaker told Touya, " And that will have to wait, I think, until we manage to revive all the unfortunate souls that died."

Sakura headed upstairs to check on Tomoyo and Yue went into the dining room with the other guardians to get Ritsuko some tea. That left Syaoran alone in the living room with Chul.

This time when Chul spoke to Syaoran he was gentler.

" Feel better?" He asked.

Syaoran nodded weakly. " Arigatou."

" You got rid of the fire."

The boy swallowed.

" Good job."

Chul looked down at the white chou. " What is that?" He asked.

Syaoran clutched it tighter to him. " I don't know."

" Why are you holding it like that?"

Syaoran hesitated. " Feels familiar."

Chul paused. " May I see it?"

Very reluctantly, Syaoran loosened his hold. Chul took hold of it–

And received a strong shock.

Syaoran gasped in surprise as Chul's upper body flung back from the force. The child stared, wide-eyed, at the waterspeaker, afraid of reproach.

" Ow." Chul muttered. " Know what that is now. You keep a tight hold on it, maybe tie it around your waist or something so that it's on you. Should prove useful."

Syaoran glanced at the chou, then at Chul, bewildered. The waterspeaker, unhappy with this turn of events, got up, brushing down at his robes, then went to seek his fellow waterspeaker, leaving Syaoran in the room.

oO

" You have the Erase Card?" Matt brightened during dinner, " It can erase memories?"

" Well, it did it once before, on a field trip once," Sakura looked at Yukito for help. Syaoran, with the help of Yue and Chul, had moved to the dining room to join the others,

" That can come in handy," The American clapped his hands, " Hey, that can really come in handy. You guys puff up that cloud and she can erase the world in…"

" A year's time? What's this girl going to do? Throw her life away?" Chul snorted. " Besides, by the time she erased her way into Russia, Japan's going to remember it because of the US. Not going to fly."

" There must be a way to amplify the effects on a large scale though."

" Big." Syaoran muttered, but nobody except Yukito paid much attention to that.

" Maybe we can get a few sorcerers from all over the world. There were conferences in the past, even if nowadays modern technology makes it hard to keep secret." Ritsuko suggested.

" Channel her?"

" Or if they can cast their own spells?"

" But the Erase Card is the best one. I mean for the other spells, you always run the risk of erasing more than you want. With the Erase Card you eliminate that risk."

" So just channel."

" But you think that's enough to amplify?"

" Big." Syaoran repeated, but as the others talked he fell silent and did not speak again.

" Too bad the kid cannot channel her the way he channeled the Thunder Card. And what were you talking about? What's big?" Matt asked.

Syaoran was silent, and the others looked around uncomfortably at his quiet. The boy chewed his lip anxiously.

" If we ask Nataku kotaishi to help?"

" Will he?"

" Why not?"

" Nataku kotaishi?" Touya stared. " Matte…he's real?"

" Hai." Matt waved impatiently. " He's real and he is the first of the firespeakers."

A long pause followed that one.

" Nataku is a firespeaker? I thought he was a god."

" Well he is immortal, and no one save a few sorcerers know where he is, which is rather unfair." Ritsuko pouted a little. " Your friend Hiirigizawa, apparently one of them."

" Hoe!" Sakura was speechless.

" We still need him to resurrect the dead."

" Will he?" Sakura asked, gaping a little.

" He definitely has to." Chul leaned back. " Big disaster with the magical world, he'd have to fix it whether he likes it or not, given the firespeakers are his descendants. Why aren't you eating?"

He said this harshly, and Syaoran jumped a little, startled. He looked at Yue for help.

Sakura stood and served him some food, prompting Syaoran, who had no appetite, to try to eat a little.

" What happened to that other guardian of yours?" Matt asked. " Didn't see him anywhere."

" Oh…Kero-chan?" Sakura blinked. " He's getting Otou-san."

" Oh."

Syaoran looked back and forth as they continued discussing the resurrections, his eyes wide with a brief flicker of hope in them, but no one else noticed.

oO

" You again! Is this going to be a common thing with you?"

" It never was." Eriol folded his arms, " But I forgot something when I last came up here. We have to resurrect the dead, otherwise there's no point in erasing any memories there."

" I know that."

" So what are you going to do about that?"

" Ugh, getting a headache over it." The prince rubbed his divine temple in emphasis.

" Who have you spoken with?"

" Well, my parents."

" What did they say?"

" Getting help here," Nezha gave him a suffering look, " We're all in an uproar, you see. No one really wants to listen to me make more demands."

" Will it be done?"

" It will be done! Good heavens! Get going! Are you not needed down there?"

" We're taking a break! We do need to sleep, you know." Eriol folded his arms.

" Yes, yes," Nezha waved at him, " You have somewhere else to be, anyhow. I might make a trip down there to visit the little one, but at the moment I am a little preoccupied."

Indeed, the land above the clouds was bustling with activity, and people were constantly calling the Third Prince's name. At one point his mother came out.

" Nezha!" She yelled out, her voice a little sharp so all the deities winced. " Get over here now!"

" Never disobey your mother." Nezha told Eriol with importance. " I have to go. If you must come next time, keep me updated on how the little one is doing. And whatever you do, do not lose him."

" Lose him?" Eriol blinked.

" Kid better not die!" Nezha called back as he travelled through the air, without his wheels since it was a short distance.

" Kid better not die," Eriol repeated under his breath, mildly offended, " He does happen to be family here. Kid better not die. As if I need you to tell me that. Hey wait!" He yelled, as he suddenly thought of something.

But prince had been called over from his trek to his mother by one of those stranger looking beings, who was looking down and pointing at something when he reached the edge. Eriol headed back over.

" What is it?" He asked.

This time Nezha did not usher him away. " Looks like a bird, but it is a bit strange."

" How do you mean?"

" Well, for one thing, there was no egg," Nezha said something to the other deity in Chinese, " Think that one is a phoenix."

Eriol stared. Of course, he could see nothing but clouds. The other deity was the only one who could see with his own eyes, and Nezha needed to hold the glass over the edge to see what the other one saw. Eriol turned his eyes to the mirror.

" It does look like a phoenix."

" These old chaps have not graced the lands on any side of this world for at least three thousand years. Where the blazes did this one come from?" Nezha looked at the deity.

The funny looking god said something in Chinese, to the extent of there being a huge conflagration and the thunderspeaker's lightning. Eriol was not sure what he meant, however.

" He thinks that the phoenix was the result of the fire and Syaoran's lightning." Nezha explained. " That is possible. Lightning is extreme, and that fire spread almost as fast as my mother could run. Plus, the island hopping of the steeds. I swear I never witnessed anything more ridiculous. The combination of the two might yield something random, like this one, which is so coincidental it cannot possibly be random."

" Should we be worried about the phoenix?" Eriol asked, meaning, is it light-based or fire-based?

" Probably not." Nezha mused a little. " It might turn out to be a bit of trouble for a while, but in the long run I think Syaoran did us a favor. He was the one that killed the Fire Demon, granted, not his fault, but still created a bit of disturbance. Not only is this one a good replacement, it also looks more attractive, and I am not one to complain about that."

Indeed, Eriol reminded himself, Nezha was a little vain about his looks, which was only countered by the fact that his physical form was never able to look older than thirteen years.

" We need to get that phoenix up here and take care of it before it blows over. Hey! Where is it going?" Nezha frantically waved the mirror. " I cannot see it anymore. What gives?"

The deity returned to looking for the bird, while Nezha turned to Eriol, setting the mirror down and sighing.

" Here am I, Father of all firespeakers, though granted I never sired one, and I cannot even sense my own elementals. Maybe if we keep tabs on that one it can lead us to those firespeakers so that I can personally take care of them. I shall add that to my long to-do list. Lord knows it is long enough."

" Nezha!" His mother called out again, her voice sharper, " Nezha, I called you already!"

" Coming, _Niang! _Give me a second." Nezha turned back to Eriol, " Oh, and I just remembered, we are considering getting the Africans to help out, even if they never listen to us."

" How do you mean?"

" Their necromancers." Nezha twirled his long hair with his right hand. " The necromancers like to sit there all day and talk to the dead, it is quite annoying to get anything into their heads since they never listen to you, but they are necromancers, and if we can convince the lords over there to listen to us maybe we can get a few to resurrect the how many dead in Japan? You see, it is all a matter of getting people to listen to us, because no one ever listens to anyone else and they do their own little act without consulting anyone."

" I was going to ask," Eriol took Nezha's arm importantly, " Since Li Syaoran's family was also killed by the supernatural fire, where the firespeakers made no effort to conceal its abnormalities, is it possible…"

Nezha took a deep breath. " That I spoke with the Emperor about. Was hoping for good news but…" He shrugged apologetically, " That one, as disastrous as it is for the little one, it did not risk the magical world to the level that the recent affair has. Resurrection is a big deal, the reason why Africans keep to themselves since only they know how much the living world can take and…unfortunately that is also the reason why they never listen to anyone. Then again, I suppose it is fair. We never really listen to them either."

" So there is no way for Syaoran to get his family back?"

" I am afraid not. I can bug the Emperor again, and maybe _Niang_, but you know as much as they tolerate my breaking the rules I do keep to my limits, and for future cases I would rather not break them, if you know what I mean. Is he doing really badly? I mean I cannot imagine how I would feel when I was eleven or ten or however old he actually is, but is he coping well at all?"

" He has been very quiet." Eriol told him gravely. " He has been through a lot."

" Oh I know that. Just we cannot have a mental thunderspeaker either. To our fortune he has grasped his powers instinctively well but we cannot push our chances. Light and energy happen to be very obnoxious to control. If he is getting depressed, or angry, or vengeful, or any of those we might have a problem, in which case it is actually easier to kill him off than to get his family back together."

Eriol's temper went. " What, you shove him thunderspeaker responsibilities and if he cannot handle them you will just kill him off?"

" Listen," Nezha noted his anger, " I am not saying we are the best blokes in the world. In fact, we did our share of neglecting mortals and letting them do whatever. I did not personally grant anyone any thunderspeaker powers and as far as I know, actually, none of us did. Just one day _Niang _suddenly lost it and we realized there is a little one down there, in the hands of _my _descendants, now that is very discouraging, to say the least. We do not want to kill anyone. This is just to ask, how badly off is he? Is he getting dangerous?"

Still furious, Eriol snapped, " Of course not. First of all, his powers went. Second of all, he is ten years old, turning eleven in a few months, and just lost his family and everything he had depended on in a matter of days. He is far from vengeful at the moment. He is lost and terrified."

" Right, ten-year-olds behave differently from forty-year-olds, got to remember that, sorry. Just we had a case in the past–but that is not important at the moment. Lost and terrified–good heavens, I have too much to do now. He lost his powers?!"

" Nezha!" Came the call again.

" Coming! Got to go, I shall keep in touch with you, you find that phoenix yet?"

The deity replied in Chinese.

" Ugh, alright, still did not find it. This is becoming one hell of a day. I shall see you later." Clearly at his wits' end, Nezha hurried away.

" Alright." Eriol retreated a few steps as the prince went to accommodate his mother's temper. The sorcerer sighed, anger dissipating to be replaced by sorrow for Syaoran's sake.

oO

Syaoran and Sakura had gone to bed, Syaoran with much urging from Touya. At long last the boy was afraid of angering the teenager and obliged to go to his room, especially since it was clear that the rest of them wanted to talk without him being present. Kero did not come back yet, but Eriol did. He came through the door quietly, especially noting the absence of both Sakura and Syaoran. The elementals were still there, with Chul in a fit of temper because the boy had lost all courage to make conversation with him. Ritsuko kept poking him knowingly, which also added to his irritation.

It was actually half past midnight, and Syaoran had gotten up to use the bathroom. He stood at the top of the stairs and eavesdropped when he realized the adults were still awake and discussing. When Eriol started talking about the resurrection he perked up a little in the shadows.

" So Nataku kotaishi is working on it then?" Ritsuko asked.

" He said they might need to talk to the Africans, and from how he said it, it seems like it would be somewhat of an arduous affair."

" Big card!" Yue suddenly exclaimed. " That was what Syaoran was talking about!"

" Nan desu ka?" Touya blinked. " That was random."

" Iie, Syaoran meant linking the Big Card with the Erase Card." Yue told Touya. " It might actually work, though not to the degree that we necessarily need, but better than if she just used the Erase Card and brute force."

" That is an idea." Eriol approved. " Syaoran has a few tricks up his sleeves, even if he did not end up becoming Card Master."

" Which is good for him." Matt folded his arms. " Card Master and Thunderspeaker. Would end up creating more harm than help."

" But back to the resurrection," Touya suddenly waved, " Does that mean the Li clan will also be resurrected?"

Syaoran tensed and craned his neck, nearly stumbling in his effort to listen. Luckily, he caught himself noiselessly.

A long silence followed, and the child dared not breathe, even as the seconds sounded the confirmation clearer and clearer.

" Said it would be pushing it." Eriol sighed. " Since that fire was not as dramatic as this one. He said no, essentially."

Crestfallen, Syaoran turned around to head back to the room. However, Eriol's next words caught his attention.

" What I am now worried about is," Eriol sighed, " What will become of him, especially once this is over? His apartment may or may not be restored, depending on whether or not they classify that fiasco before the fire steeds as damaging enough, but even if it is restored, Syaoran had family before, which could come to his aid, and his living condition was a temporary affair, not something he had to live with for ten or so years. So where is he going to live? Who is going to take care of him?"

The boy jerked back, heart thudding in his chest. There was another uncomfortable silence, even more dreadful than the one before.

" They really should resurrect the Li clan," Chul huffed, " If only to spare us this dilemma. As if we don't have enough already."

" I don't mind having a brother in the house, even if it is the gaki, and I'm sure the kaijuu wouldn't mind either. In fact she'd probably be delighted." Touya remarked, " But I don't know. It's not like we're rich and can afford to spare another mouthful. I doubt Otou-san would appreciate it, what with the extra set of textbooks, but that's not the main thing. He's going to go to college at the same time as Sakura, and tuition is getting icky these days. Like, he won't complain that much, but still, we're not rich, you know?"

" I doubt Yukito would mind either," Yue agreed, " And neither would I, but Yukito is going to college and who is going to take care of him afterwards?"

" I would take care of him, if worst comes to worst." Eriol told the elementals. " He is my descendant and I'm his own family, but I am never in one place for long. Clow had many properties, and in truth some of them have disappeared over the years. Not to mention, sorcerers in Europe know me well. The benign ones, as well as the not-so-good ones. It is risky to bring him with me all the time and risky to leave him alone in one place while I am away. And Kaho is always out as well, in fact I rarely see her all that much."

" That is very kind of you, dumping the kid on us," Chul remarked dryly, " And lightning and water do not go together."

" Chul!" Ritsuko rebuked.

" Look, it was annoying enough taking care of the kid for those few days, and we come along and the kid isn't even grateful."

" You really are a bastard."

" But he needs to be trained too. Prince Nezha told me that we were lucky he did not do anything bad yet, but his powers are hard to control. Who better to train him then an elemental?"

" But lightning is not the same as water, or wind, or earth or metal, or fire even." Matt pointed out. " It would be a difficult thing to raise him."

Syaoran turned around, his back hitting the wall softly and breath hitching in his throat. Tears spilled out of his eyes and he felt like the world had just darkened further. He bit his knuckles to muffle the sobs that threatened to sound, so that he could taste the coppery tang of his blood.

" This is a big problem." Touya opined, and there was a long silence after that.

Chul finally huffed. " What are we stressing over this for? We still have other problems to worry about. Tackle each first. Besides, if the kid managed to take care of himself before, who said he can't now?"

" But we can't just leave him alone, especially not at a time like this!" Yue protested.

" So? Maybe let him hang around until he gets better, then he can take care of himself again. Li clan's ridiculously rich."

" They're rich because of their estate, and their property though. All that has been burned." Ritsuko told Chul. " And according to Eriol, Nataku kotaishi is not going to change that."

" We should probably tackle our present problems first." Matt advised. " This is an issue that has to be addressed thoroughly. Not to mention we cannot just say that Syaoran will go wherever we decide. He has to agree to it. I doubt he would appreciate suddenly getting pulled into Korea, or the US, for that matter."

Syaoran shakily made his way back into Touya's room, half blind with tears. He had heard enough. He was afraid if he listened any more he would give himself away and…and what will happen then? The room was dark as he slowly shut the door, his heart heavy and hurting. He turned around and looked at the bed and the bedcovers, and the shades covering the windows. His body suddenly ached as he considered lying down on a bed that was not his own, that was someone else's, someone he would inconvenience, who considered him an inconvenience. They all said he would be an inconvenience.

He was tired. His magical core had not recovered and his physical strength had only returned briefly, thanks to Park, who was the one that…

He settled his head stiffly on the pillow and slowly drew Touya's covers over him. He curled up into a fetal position and bit his knuckles again as a new well of tears spilled out onto the pillow. Other people crying for no reason had annoyed him in the past–he had been able to tolerate only Sakura's tears, because hers was different.

_Big boys don't cry._ But he had to. The pain was too much. However, as he bit harder on his hand, at the very least he could keep it silent, so no one else would know.


	15. Chapter 15

I seriously wish this were made into anime. I'm getting way too fond of this story, hehe. I keep dreaming that this thing were made into youtube clips, but I don't have the time or talent to pull that one off. Anyways, this is why the story's getting written so fast, haha! Enjoy!

Song of Thunder

Chapter 15

It was exhausting to do reconstruction, though the exciting thing was when Nataku kotaishi, the father of firespeakers, came down to join them. Many elementals became very hyper and excited in the presence of the great Third Prince, who had been in legends and folklore for who knows how long.

" I am looking for that bloody turkey though." Nezha told Matt, kind of ruining his image, but he was unusually cross that day, " So cannot talk long."

" What turkey?"

" You still did not find it?" Eriol inquired.

" Iie." Nezha was on his wheels so the heat was a bit intense. " I do have time to check on the kid though. He is not out here, is he?"

" Iie." Matt called out, but he then dove down out of the conversation to attend to a mudslide.

Eriol was sitting on the cloud to recuperate, while Sakura was busy returning things to normal. Nezha hovered near him.

" He was acting weird this morning." The sorcerer told the deity.

" How so?"

" Like…" Eriol hesitated, " Like he was going to break."

Sakura heard, but she did not comment, instead tackling the task with more fervor. There was pain etched in her features, but nowhere as deep as Syaoran's.

Nezha folded his arms. " You mentioned he lost his powers?"

" Hai."

" That was not supposed to happen."

" It never really made sense to me. And the fever came back, even though Ritsuko healed him yesterday."

" He had a fever?"

" Hai. When I took him home in the rain the other day from Yamazaki, who is with him, by the way. We thought it recovered. It is strange, I have heard of fever cycles but somehow I doubt this is one of them."

Nezha sighed. " I think I know what it is. He was sick and tired. When the fire came the urgency forced him to use and control his powers to the extent that should be beyond him at the level he is in. He absorbed the energy of the fire and happily it gave him his sight and hearing back earlier than it should, but at other costs. Does he have any qi left?"

" I do not know. All I know is that he is weak, and can barely walk on his own. It takes a lot out of him to climb the stairs, so he preferred to just sit for a long time in the same place."

" Did anything happen to cause this mood change?" Nezha asked. " It sounds like a mood change. You said it was weird."

" I think he is realizing fully, his situation." Eriol sighed. " I am seriously contemplating taking him back with me to England. Not to mention, this affair has delayed me tremendously. I should have been in England a week ago."

" Your affair can wait." Sakura snapped.

" I know." Eriol stretched out his arms, deciding to wait just a minute more on the cloud. " Taking care of Syaoran presents a problem for all of us. Perhaps he realized that somehow?"

" I doubt it." Nezha replied. " Unless you actually told him this, I doubt he has the presence of mind to think of matters like this. At the moment he is still dealing with a loss, not to mention very heavy new burdens. He cannot afford to think of your side of things."

" That is good then." Eriol sighed.

" Spend as much time as you can afford with him." Nezha advised. " Last thing he needs to know is that he is alone somehow."

With a flap of his red chou Nezha disappeared back into the clouds. Eriol got off the cloud to help Sakura.

" When are we using that Erase Card of hers?" One of the other sorcerers asked.

" After we finish reconstruction." Matt replied.

oO

Yamazaki and Tomoyo did not stay for dinner the other night since both were a little more concerned with their own families. Both were fine, and the next morning they both made their way back to the Kinomoto house, after a lot of hugs and kisses from Sonomi for Tomoyo, who had given her a fright since the poor woman could not find her daughter the entire day that disaster occurred.

Syaoran made for a rather unpleasant companion, if only because he could not speak and the other two had no clue what to say to him. Kero came back in the middle of the day, frightening the wits out of Yamazaki. Fujitaka had gotten the general story out of the guardian beast while on his flight to Japan, and instantly set to work to make Syaoran feel as comfortable as the child possibly could.

" Poor child." He said to his son while the two worked in the kitchen. Touya was complaining how ever since the whole disaster occurred the kitchen seemed to be the only place he ever was these days. The fact that his father now joined him was not much of a consolation.

" I remember when Oka-san died." Touya sighed. " I was his age then."

Fujitaka smiled sadly but let his son continue.

" I felt so lost. You know, to this day I still think Oka-san is the most beautiful woman ever. The best thing in the world. That time when she died, I felt so lost, and I still had you and the kaijuu around to help me cope. Li does not have anyone anymore."

Fujitaka sighed. " Would you two be okay if we take him in?"

Touya threw the towel on the counter and leaned against the wall, folding his arms, " Can we do that?" he asked.

" Anything's possible." Fujitaka replied, also folding his arms. " Just some issues have to be dealt with, that's all. We'll have to calculate…see the income I make every year, and we basically spend…hm."

Outside Yamazaki could hear the two older members talking and guessed the gist of the topic. He did his best to distract Syaoran from the situation. On the bright side, Syaoran did not seem to be listening, but nor did he seem to be paying much attention to the anime on television either. Tomoyo did her part in trying to distract Syaoran as well, commenting on the graphics of the show.

" It's so slow." Tomoyo complained. " No wonder so few people watch anime."

" Manga is tons better." Yamazaki agreed. " I heard in the US the folks there are crazy about these though."

Syaoran lifted his arm and stared. The chou had tangled around his arm to his waist. He began to detangle it with his other hand. The other two took a glance and then returned their attention to the television.

" Guys want to eat?" Touya sighed as he came out.

Syaoran was not hungry, but Tomoyo and Yamazaki were ravenous. Even so, the thunderspeaker's gloom affected their appetite and they looked at him in worry. He was still a bit wrapped up in the chou, but had given up detangling it since the feeling of the cloth gave him some comfort.

With Syaoran present, there was no much to talk about, or rather, not much to say that would not remind Syaoran of his present situation, as if he needed reminding. The meal passed in silence.

Afterwards Syaoran began rubbing at his temple, and they finally weeded out of him that he had a headache. Fujitaka took him upstairs.

Overall, it was a dismal day.

oO

" What is he doing?" Several Chinese sorcerers had come to join in the reconstruction and they were very unhappy with the way the sky was streaking. To make them feel better Sakura had the Shield Card surround the group as they were doing work. Nezha had found the phoenix but apparently it had situated itself in a difficult location. Eriol suspected the phoenix might have been captured already.

" By whom?" Sakura asked.

" Probably the Fire Child."

" Surely he would not hurt the phoenix?"

" That's not what we're worried about." Chul huffed. " Blast it, if we have to summon our leviathan I swear,"

" That would be bad." Ritsuko agreed.

" Leviathan?" Sakura blinked. " What's that?"

" This girl doesn't know a thing, does she?" Chul snapped.

" Chul!" Ritsuko glared.

" The Leviathan is the Water Element's Source." Matt explained to her. " When the elementals were created there was too much of their respective magic collecting in this realm, so each element has its own source in the form of a beast that stores the magic that the speakers can tap to when needed. These beasts usually lurk outside this dimension because they have their own conscience and may wreck havoc on our world if released."

" Cool!" Sakura brightened. " So windspeakers have one too? What is it?"

" Dragon."

" Dragon?"

" Hai." Ritsuko smiled wryly. " Earthspeakers have a golem, while metalspeakers have this metallic creature, of course, but it does not look like anything else I've ever seen."

" Oh. Do thunderspeakers have one?"

" Not that I know of." Matt replied. " There was only one, and now there are two, but there's only one that's still active, and I doubt either of them would need to create one."

A meteor shot down. Apparently Nezha was not about to be lenient on the new bird.

" Ignore him." Eriol told Sakura. " That is nothing you can interfere with."

Sakura looked at him unhappily.

" It is Syaoran-kun's birthday soon." She suddenly reminded Eriol. " What are we going to do?"

Activity stopped then, and Chul looked at Eriol curiously.

Eriol sighed. _What a way to celebrate a birthday. _Would a month be enough to heal all the wounds?

They continued reconstruction.

oO

" That bloody turkey," Prince Nezha hissed. The deities were scouting below, searching for the bird," But then I suppose it cannot be blamed for all the mishaps nowadays."

A shriek followed this, and the firespeaker summoned his spear. His wheels flamed, and he poised, ready to defend himself. The deities flocked to him as some chased the bird out of its hiding place in the wooded mountain.

The wind blew. There was no movement for a moment as the phoenix landed on top of a tall pine and remained there, shaking its feathers. As the deities below tried to aggravate it into the air, a burning red collar glowed at its throat. Nezha turned his head. _What is that bird doing?_

Then there was a sound of laughter. It was maniacal, malicious and very annoying to the boy-god. The prince traced the voice as it spoke.

" _An honor, Your Majesty."_ the voice greeted. _" What brings you to our humble abode?"_

" You have none. Do not play with me." the prince warned. " You may be the Fire Child, but I am the father of firespeakers."

_" Indeed, hai, Nataku kotaishi. I would never dream of succeeding you and your legendary power."_

" Give the phoenix back." Nezha commanded. " Let it go. It is new yet and you may kill it."

_" Really, Your Highness, I am wounded." _Hiko's voice sneered. _" I take care of those who serve me."_

Nezha already pinpointed where Hiko was. He shrugged off his cosmic ring and slipped his red chou through it, before throwing it into the air. It glinted out of sight, his long cloth following it, and he tugged as it wrapped around the meteor he aimed at. Pulling, he sent the flaming rock spiraling down. The meteor missed, and Nezha shrugged his cosmic ring back on, leaving his red chou free and ready.

Hiko sent out the phoenix to attack. Nezha grabbed his spear and stabbed forward, twisting and turning on the fire wheels to avoid the magical flame from the firebird. As the deities moved forward, Nezha called out to them, " Stand back!"

Spinning his spear, Nezha returned the phoenix's fire attacks with his own. The bird, still young and inexperienced, faltered dangerously from the affront. It struggled for a few minutes before desperately retreating. Nezha shrugged off his cosmic ring again and threw it at the bird, intending on either capturing it or knocking it unconscious, or perhaps even killing it if necessary. A fireball hit the cosmic ring as it spun, and Nezha threw his chou at it to catch it before it flew beyond his reach. He turned to Hiko.

" You are very bold." The prince swung his spear in front of him, " But you are no match for my wrath. Let the phoenix go."

Hiko challenged that order with another flaming ball. Nezha knocked it back angrily with his spear. He grabbed his chou and swung it toward Hiko, sending fire blazing in its wake. Hiko responded with flames of his own.

" You're losing your touch, Nataku kotaishi!" The Fire Child sneered, then laughed malevolently, " The world has changed! Magic has changed! You, with your immortal peaches up above, you do not realize just how removed you were!"

But Nezha did not lose his touch, and the Prince proved that as he beat the Fire Child back in the sky. Far below from the ground the sky gleamed red with dark clouds like smoke, and the air sizzled in heat. Hiko turned to flee, and Nezha flew after him, but the Phoenix the Fire Child abandoned and it was left flapping helplessly in the air. After a few meters of pursuit Nezha slowed and halted, red lips in a thin line. He turned around to take care of the frightened bird.

" You turkey." He scolded it gently. " Come here, I will take care of you." He turned his head around as he captured the Phoenix with his cosmic ring to look wistfully at where Hiko disappeared. Had he not prioritized the phoenix he would have gotten rid of that firespeaker for the poor thunder child, but he needed to return with his deities to tend to the new fire source.

Tucking the bird gently in his arms, Nezha gave another wistful glance in the direction Hiko escaped. Then he turned around and waved at the other deities.

oO

It was a long time before Syaoran finally summoned the will to draw healing energy from his surroundings. Everyone was stressed, but they were all supportive, and he relaxed his joints and muscles to let the nurturing qi in.

_Things are not so bad. _He thought, as he felt the environment around him crackle with energy that was not magical, but powerful nonetheless. _I still have this. And once I heal I can fight through this. After all, there are plenty of people in worser situations. I can do this. I have the strength. I just have to figure out how._

He felt ashamed all of the sudden. He had been so weak the past few days. Other people had been taking care of him. How is it different now than it was before? He had lived in Japan all by himself for two years, and did so quite well. They are doing reconstruction and surely his apartment is still there by now. He would just go there and take care of himself like he always had.

But the emptiness, where his family had been, loomed strongly in his mind. It was different now. Because before, no matter how alone he physically was, his family had been there, their magical presence, their life essence, they were with him. He was always assured of this, through the phone calls, the emails, the letters, the gift packages. He was never really alone.

_Suck it up. _He told himself. _You're not the only orphan in this world. There are plenty of others._ But he was scared.

" You have any more crackers?" Yamazaki asked Touya.

" Hai, they're in the kitchen, you can look through the shelves, should be the third shelf from here."

_Perhaps I will be sent to an orphanage._ Syaoran thought. He did not want to go to an orphanage. He could take care of himself. He had for two years. He could do so for another year. Or another. Or another.

He shuddered, and swallowed his fear down. He had to face this. He could not impose himself upon others. They all had their own lives to lead, and if he could take care of himself why should they take responsibility for him? Money was not an issue. The Li clan had wealth in the bank. He could live off of that. Heaven knows no one else will.

He shuddered again. He wished he had gone back to Hong Kong earlier. Sakura never needed his help with Hiirigizawa, who turned out to be Clow and would not have hurt her anyway.

_It was not worth it._ He thought despairingly. Not worth it to spend more time with Sakura only to lose his family this way. Not this way. If he had known he would not have stayed. He would have gone back and embraced his mother and sisters. He would have spent more time with them. His last words to his sisters would not have been to leave his drawers alone. His last words to his mother would not have been so annoyed and cross, would not have been a snide remark about her crazy idea to partition his macintosh.

_Was not worth it._ Because in the end, for the one year, could he still spend any time with Sakura after this? Could he face her? He was an orphan now. She deserved much better. She deserved someone better the entire time. Lord knows why she put up with him.

_Kuso. _She probably saw him cry. He knew he did at one point, just not sure when. Everything had been so confusing and dark and he was not of the mind to really care what she saw at that moment. But now he regretted it.

He should have died with his family.

The qi stopped flowing to him as his thoughts darkened. He stood up, suddenly restless. Tomoyo looked at him curiously but did not comment.

He paced to the front door. Fujitaka called his name but he did not hear. He paused. He turned around.

" Are you looking for something?" the kind man asked. " Do you need something?"

He was not sure. He needed his family back. He needed to go home and give them a call. He started for the front door again.

" Syaoran-san, matte," Fujitaka approached him. He was going to stop Syaoran from leaving. Armed with the qi that he absorbed, Syaoran made a split-second decision and pressed harshly against a pressure point on Fujitaka's torso, before flipping the limp man around and pressing again on his back. Tomoyo cried out.

" Syaoran-san!" She rushed as Fujitaka crumpled to the floor. " What are you doing?"

Syaoran grabbed at his temple and wrung his hands. He was not sure.

" Touya-san!" Tomoyo cried. " Yamazaki-san! Syaoran-san, matte! What did you do?"

" He'll be fine." Syaoran's voice did not sound like his own. In fact he could barely realize that he was speaking at all. " He'll be fine in a few minutes." He had to get out of the house.

He went outside. It was sunny and bright. He halted at the gates.

" Hey!" Touya was furious as he charged out after the boy. " You gaki! What did you do to my father?!"

Syaoran gave him a terrified look. The child was honestly confused now. But he knew that he had to get out of here. Throwing open the gates, Syaoran stumbled out and ran as fast as he could. His speed started off rapid but slowed quickly, though not quickly enough for Touya, who was more worried about his father, to catch up.

Syaoran ran a few blocks before stopping to catch his breath. He had to give his family a call. He wiped at his eyes. He had to call Hong Kong. He needed to tell his mother everything that happened, even if he could not really remember what it was. He was exhausted but he pressed himself further. He needed to get out of here.

Back at the house Fujitaka regained mobility. He was never unconscious, and had watched the boy flee. Once Syaoran's qi-points were released he started out of the house, but they had no idea where the boy went.


	16. Chapter 16

Song of Thunder

Chapter 16

" Lady!" A loud cry rang through the temple. Lady Jin looked up.

" What is it? What is all this ruckus?" She demanded. The firespeaker stumbled at the door in his effort to slow. Another one crashed into him from behind.

" The thunderspeaker was in Tomoeda all along!"

" What?"

" We either did not catch them unawares as we would have liked, or the boy has faster reaction than we expected." Hiko commented.

" Where is he now?" Lady Jin demanded.

" We saw him on the blocks, heading toward his old apartment."

" They let him out?"

" He was alone."

" Hm." Hiko mused, " This is a new development."

" He was alone?" Lady Jin looked at the Fire Child. " Sounds like he ran away..."

They looked at each other thoughtfully.

" Post guards. We're rounding up the firespeakers. At best opportunity we strike." Lady Jin ordered, and the temple soon swarmed with activity.

oO

When Eriol next visited the prince, Nezha was in much better spirits.

" Got the bird, got the Africans to listen to us, should be done by tonight." The firespeaker gave Eriol a nod. " Bird is not though, but bloody turkey will soon learn who is boss here, no problem."

" Ah." Eriol blinked a bit. " I see."

As if in answer, there was a loud squawk, followed by a loud explosion and a puff. Nezha blinked.

" You did not hear that."

" Hear what?"

" Your Majesty!"

" That you heard. I'll be right back." The prince disappeared, leaving Eriol to wait for him. There was some kind of commotion inside the hall. Nezha came back out, looking almost innocent.

" Seems like we are abusing him." He observed mournfully.

" Are they usually so temperamental?"

" No. The fire demon, believe it or not, was quite docile to us. This one though, I got the poor thing from the Fire Child. I cannot say for sure what happened while it was with him bt Hiko did something to the phoenix. It simply is not cooperating."

" I see."

" Yes, this is much better." The prince continued. " You will forgive me if I am a bit breathless. It has been a while since you mortals screwed up like this."

" We need a way to erase everything even with the Big Card." Eriol ignored the last statement.

" I can supply the firespeaker portion. I know what you folks were talking about." Nezha waved. " Just give me a holler when you folks are ready."

" Oh." Eriol blinked at the ease of which his duties were accomplished. " Alright then." But there still remained that one persistent question. " Have you asked...?"

Nezha gave him a long-suffering look. " I did, I did, I did, no can do. I am very sorry."

Eriol sighed.

" Right now, let me see, Hiko is still alive, obviously. We had a brief scuffle when I retrieved the phoenix from him." There was another puff. By now Eriol could smell the smoke and ashes. " The unfortunate thing is I had to make a split second decision whether to finish him off while he is still weak, or to go ahead and take care of the firebird, and as you know I decided to take care of the firebird. Now he ought to be a bit drained from the exchange earlier, but he's recuperating, which means Syaoran is still in a bit of danger. Not to mention, just because we got the Africans to listen to us this time, does not mean we can do so again. Hiko might mess things up once more and I cannot have that. After the resurrection and brainwash we will have to search the firespeakers out. This whole affair is ridiculous, but," And here the prince brightened, " It is not as ridiculous as before. Things are improving. Which is encouraging."

" Indeed."

" Have you decided what to do with the boy?"

" What?"

Nezha gave him a weird look. " Have you decided what to do with the boy," He repeated.

Eriol sighed. " Still working on that."

" Would he really be that much of an inconvenience?"

" Not for me. I am just not the best option for him."

" What about the other waterspeakers?"

" He is afraid of them."

" He should not be." Nezha frowned. " What, the Water Lord?"

" Yes."

" Water Lord needs him as much as he needs the Water Lord." Nezha folded his arms. " What, did Park Chul mess up again and frighten the child?"

" Not that I can see. I think his reputation precedes him, however."

" Ah." Nezha nodded understandingly. " It is between you and Park Chul, Clow. He could move up here, but that is even worse than living with you."

" Gee, thanks."

" I am serious. You and Park have to decide who takes care of him. Park has a temper, yes." Nezha frowned. " Come to think of it, you both are lousy choices."

" Gee, thanks." Eriol said this a little more vehemently.

" Only speaking the truth. His family's demise is a stroke of obscenely bad luck for all of us. But anyway, I have kept you up here too long."

" Hm?" Eriol blinked.

" He needs you." The prince suddenly told him. " He needs all of you. He is hurting more than you know. You must go to him. You all must."

oO

The reconstruction ended with the final touches. Sakura sighed in relief. It was done, much faster than expected, and Japan looked like it had always looked.

Matt swore in satisfaction. " I'm hungry!"

" I'm beat." Ritsuko looked around. " But Japan looks like new."

" Hai." Sakura smiled, and felt a thrill of achievement. She had participated in the reconstruction. She had made a difference, and played a part in how her country looked like now. _Being a Card Mistress is so awesome!_

Eriol returned from above, looking rather grim.

" And where were you all this time?" Ichiro demanded.

" I was speaking with Prince Nezha."

" He catch that bird yet?"

" Un. He was in a good mood."

" That's good news, right?" Matt asked. " I never spoke with the guy. He does not even talk to his own elementals."

" That might have been the problem." Eriol gave them a miserable expression. " We would probably be able to avoid all this. Though of course, like any god he blames everything on us and the other mortals, but that is hardly something we did not expect."

" That's good and all," Chul broke in, " But what did he say?"

" Apparently the Africans are listening to us. By the way, we should go down and check on Syaoran."

" Hoe?"

" Matte, the Africans are listening to us but what did they say?" Matt asked. Chul started down but stopped when he heard the question.

" I'm sure Hiirigizawa can tell us while we go check on the kid."

They headed down to the Kinomoto house.

" Apparently he's not worried so I don't think we should be either. Hey Kinomoto-san, where is Syaoran?"

" Did he say when they will start?"

" After the brainwash."

" Why after that? That doesn't make sense."

" Well we're doing it tonight. Sakura's going to start late this afternoon, so by the time the necromancers raised all the dead we should be pretty much finished with the entire affair."

" Why are you looking at us like that?" Chul demanded. " Where is the kid?"

" He left." Touya blinked, his earlier anger dissipating to be replaced with real concern for Syaoran. " He knocked Otou-san out and bailed."

" He what?"

" He knocked out Otou-san?" Sakura exclaimed.

" He did some kind of qi thing." Fujitaka looked a little shaken. " He pressed me in some spots. And I wasn't knocked out. I was paralyzed."

Matt cursed. " Of all the times to display his wonderful qigong abilities."

" What do we got?" Chul asked. " He has no magical core we can sense. Where could he go? His apartment?"

" He paralyzed you?" Sakura squeaked.

" That gaki!" Kero hissed.

" Iie," Yue held out his hands to placate everyone, " This is hardly something we shouldn't expect."

" Still, you'd think the kid would be more grateful, us taking care of him and all." Kero grunted.

" He did not hurt Kinomoto-san." Yue pointed out. " He merely prevented him from interfering. I'd say what he did is fairly neutral."

" You've been somewhat biased recently." Eriol noticed. " Don't forget that other night when the elementals first came."

" He lost something." Yue replied gravely. " He's grieving. It is something I can relate to." Eriol blanched. " We have not been paying nearly enough attention to that, since we had other more dire issues to worry about. Most of the time we are doing reconstruction, leaving him alone with Touya."

" Oh." Sakura looked down mournfully. " I wasn't there for him."

" You don't have to feel guilty about that." Kero insisted.

" Iie, this is not the issue of guilt—"

" Hey!" Chul snapped. " Can we stop talking here? First of all _where is he?_"

" He's right," Matt agreed. " We can mope later. First find the kid and make sure he didn't run into a car or something." He cursed the streets. " Where could he go? You think his apartment?"

" Would he be able to get in?"

" Dunno, but who cares. Let's get moving." Chul whirled past in a violent swirl of mist.

" Easy there!" Ritsuko yelled. " Don't kill anyone while you're at it!" And she disappeared in a more gentle swirl of mist.

" Off we go then." Eriol beckoned.

oO

Syaoran had gotten into his apartment in a daze. He was not sure how he was able to get in, since he no longer had the keys. Maybe the door was unlocked to begin with.

He had dialed and dialed and waited and waited. There was no ring, of course, and no sound except that annoying beep and the voice telling him that they were sorry, that the phone number he had dialed was out of service, no longer available, and please try again. He had collapsed to the floor in exhaustion and terror and remained lying there, unmoving. It was how the elementals found him. It was how they found him.

Chul had been afraid that the child had died somehow. The boy's eyes were open but dull and glazed. He did not react when they entered the flat. Sakura started forward to him, but for some reason Yue blocked her. The Water Lord knelt by the child and gathered the limp boy into his arms. Syaoran shuddered.

" Hey," Chul called gently to him, surprising even Ritsuko with his tenderness, " Hey, kid, come on," He slapped the boy's face lightly. Syaoran blinked and looked up. " It's alright."

Syaoran uttered a choked sob.

" Syaoran-kun!" Sakura called, starting to him again, but once again Yue held her back.

At her voice, Syaoran froze, his eyes darting wildly. With an effort, he swallowed and made to get up, but Chul snapped his head around while tightening his hold on the boy.

" Get her out of here." He told Yue.

" Nani?!" Sakura protested. " Matte! Why?"

Syaoran was still trying to get up, but his position made it too difficult. Ritsuko gently pulled on Sakura's arm.

Hurt, Sakura allowed the waterspeaker to lead her away. Eriol came forward to Syaoran's other side.

" Syaoran," Eriol called, " It's me, Eriol. Tell me what happened."

Syaoran stared where Sakura left for a moment, silent, but another choked sob escaped. He brought his hands up to hide his face. Chul reached and gripped his wrist gently.

" Syaoran, tell us what happened."

" I, I tried calling." Syaoran managed to say. His eyes turned to the phone. Everyone looked there.

" Syaoran." Chul sighed, sending in the soothing magic, but Syaoran was beyond comforting now.

" I want to go home." He wept wretchedly, curling into himself.

" I know."

Syaoran covered his face and this time Chul let him. Yue knelt down next to Eriol and reached out to one of Syaoran's wrists. He let go abruptly as a vision unexpectedly flashed before his eyes.

Eriol hesitated for a moment, before asking, " Yue?"

Yue blinked. " Later. Let's get Syaoran back."

" Iie." Syaoran struggled to catch his breath, but Chul already lifted him up.

" Hiirigizawa," Chul suggested, " Perhaps you can collect some of his belongings?"

" Certainly." Eriol nodded. Yue folded his arms, as if contemplating something. His face held the most troubled expression Eriol had ever seen.

" Iie." Syaoran protested again, and sent a burst of malign qi into Chul, forcing the waterspeaker to drop him. Chul cursed in Korean. " Chinese gaki!"

Scrambling to his feet, Syaoran's shoulders twitched as he hiccuped, but there was a terror in his eyes.

" Syaoran, work with us." Chul sighed, more patiently than he probably ever was in his life. " Let us take care of you."

" Iie." Syaoran shook his head vehemently.

Chul rubbed at the spot where Syaoran had attacked him, wincing a little. " Ugh." He crouched down in fatigue. " What did you do to me, kid?"

Syaoran trembled, his expression more openly revealing his inner struggle than it ever was, torn between guilt and fear. Yue frowned at him.

When Chul finally recovered he turned to Eriol for help, at a loss as to how to deal with a despairing child. Eriol gave him an equally blank look. The sorcerer would not know. He never had experience with such people.

A streak of bright light suddenly shot across the opened apartment door. The four snapped their faces to the light as the hall began to blaze.

Chul swore.

" Sakura!" Syaoran cried in alarm. Yue caught the boy just as Syaoran darted rashly toward the flames.

" Get him out of here!" Eriol cried, summoning his staff in one move. " Hurry up! Go go go!"

Without hesitating, Yue dashed toward the window. Shifting the boy in his arms so that one arm covered the child's head, he bowed over the boy to shelter him from the splintering wood and shattered glass and dove through the window into the open air. But the firespeakers were waiting outside, and when Yue gained enough altitude, he found himself surrounded by the elementals on all sides.

Eriol and Chul jumped out of the window right behind Yue. They hovered below him, looking around.

" Oh no." Eriol hissed anxiously, as he spotted both Ritsuko and Sakura together, both held hostage by their guard with an all too familiar face.


	17. Chapter 17

Song of Thunder

Chapter 17

Syaoran literally stopped breathing. Yue tightened his hold around the boy protectively as he hovered in the air.

" Matt?" Chul looked around. " Where is he?" He hissed at Eriol. Eriol shook his head. " He's behind us." He had the time to whisper. " He did not come out yet."

" Moon guardian," Lady Jin smiled. The child's earlier distress had worked to their advantage, as the ones in the apartment had been too preoccupied to realize they had taken the Card Mistress and the healer. Ritsuko had her arms around Sakura protectively. Syaoran looked on anxiously.

" Moon guardian," Lady Jin approached Yue, who hovered back, " We know you to be a loyal guardian. Throughout legends it was well known to what lengths you would go for your cards, for your master. Surely this child matters less to you than your own Mistress?"

Syaoran had not moved. Yue pressed the boy to him, struggling. " Shh," He whispered to the child, " I won't hand you over to them."

He did not believe it when he said it, but after he spoke the words a new resolve took hold of his heart.

Syaoran abruptly had other ideas. He suddenly kicked at Yue's stomach, pushing Yue's arms out and diving toward the firespeakers. Yue did not even feel the pain, so frightened he was. Syaoran shot his palm outward and slammed it into one of the firespeakers holding on to Ritsuko. Blood splattered from the elemental's mouth and the woman fell. Ritsuko reacted quickly, elbowing the firespeaker on the other side while Syaoran took care of the third. He then kicked at Ritsuko's back, sending both Ritsuko and Sakura flying toward Yue and Chul.

" You!" Lady Jin cried, diving at Syaoran with her palms shot owards and fire burning at her hands. Syaoran whirled and met her palms with his own, his face scrunching in pain. Yue held on to Sakura, mind still reeling from what Syaoran just did.

" Your qi won't save you now!" Hiko dove to help Lady Jin, but Chul thrusted Ritsuko to the side to aim both his hands at the Fire Child. The ice crashed into Hiko's body and Hiko grabbed the beams, sending fire running back to Chul. Chul dodged, letting go of the ice. Both sailed back in midair, taking a moment to collect their breath.

Syaoran was finally sent back with a scream. His body smashed into the building behind him and he barely managed to roll out of the way as Jin attacked him again. Sakura drew the Ghot Card out and summoned it while Yue let go of her to shoot an arrow at Jin. It missed as she disappeared into smoke. Syaoran kicked at the wall to fly back into the midst of the crowd. He spread his arms out and Sakura could see his hands were blistered. Lifting his head he began spinning slowly in the air.

" Argh!" Hiko groaned, as suddenly red auras began whisking away from his body and toward Syaoran's outstretched palms.

" What's going on?" Sakura asked, still focusing on the Ghot Card to make sure it did not hit any ally.

" Drawing qi! That's dangerous!" Chul yelled. " You baka! Stop it right now!"

Syaoran did stop, but he spun again more violent and when he thrust his arms out a blast of malignant wind exploded from his palms. He was targeting Jin, who waved her sleeves to fend off the energy. Syaoran suddenly dropped from where he had been almost hovering, and at first Sakura thought he did it on purpose. Yue dove and caught him just in time.

Jin spat out a mouthful of blood, wiping it with her sleeve. With the red coating her teeth she seemed more a monster than a human. Fury blazed in her eyes as she regarded the exhausted boy in Yue's arms.

Chul whirled his right arm and sent a spiral of ice at Jin. Hiko blocked it with his flame and attacked Chul, who was knocked back. As Chul struggled to recover Sakura directed her Ghot Card at Hiko's head. The spell did not knock him out, but it cost him time as the Water Lord retaliated with cold water. Sakura then called back the Ghot Card and, remembering how she once used Watery and Windy simultaneously, summoned the two cards to fend off the other firespeakers that were attacking Ritsuko.

The fire in the apartments vanished into smoke and Matt jumped out to help Ritsuko and Eriol. Yue was flying upwards now, spraying his crystals down at Lady Jin who was pursuing him. The firespeaker quickly gained the upperhand, literally, as she spiraled around the guardian in her flame form to materialize above him. Yue used every technique he knew to make the sharp turn to avoid her, but Lady Jin was no longer chasing him.

" Water Lord!" She called out, her figure glowing with inner fire, " You dare to utilize the forces beyond the sky! I shall do the same!" Raising her hands up in the air, she turned her face upwards and hovered there for a moment.

Chul looked at her, confused. Matt cursed.

" Stop her stop her stop her!" He yelled. Chul shot his own spells at Lady Jin, but they were blocked by Hiko, who hesitated only for a brief moment to decide if he should take out Syaoran while Yue was still dumbstruck, or if he should continue defending Lady Jin.

In the moment of panic, Chul almost did not see the streak of white that shot toward Lady Jin. At first he thought it was some attack from Yue, but Syaoran was holding on to the end. It was the white cloth. It circled around one of Jin's arms and once it locked Syaoran tugged violently. Broken out of her concentration, Lady Jin staggered a bit as she struggled against the cloth's hold.

" You gaki!" She hissed, and grabbed the white cloth, sending something through it. Syaoran's body bucked back and blood splattered from his mouth, but he kept his hold on the cloth and sent some of his own poisonous energy through. He punched back into Yue's torso, forcing the guardian to let go of him, and spun his body down as Lady Jin tried to use the cloth as a conductor again. He then began pulling the cloth to him as Lady Jin tried to hold her distance. Hiko sent a blast of flame at the cloth, but it survived without even a singe mark.

Windy and Water spiraled around each other and butted into Hiko's back while Hiko tried to send another blast. Hiko spun around to locate the source, but Windy and Watery hit him again before he could react. Eriol swung his staff and sent a magical spell swinging towards Hiko. One of the firespeakers blocked with her body and puffed out of existence as she died. Hiko whirled around to Eriol in response and sent fire magic toward the sorcerer, which was blocked by Sakura's two cards.

Matt cursed again. " Someone help the kid!"

As Sakura looked up she almost felt that Syaoran was holding his own pretty well. Lady Jin had managed to detangle herself from Syaoran's cloth, but now the cloth was glowing bright white and it looked as if it had other uses. For one thing, Syaoran was now definitely hovering without using his qi technique, and he was swinging both ends of the cloth at Lady Jin, who was desperately dodging them. However, upon closer inspection she realized that Syaoran was tiring fast, and though his movements were quick and the cloth relentless he still did not manage to ensnare Lady Jin or damage her in any way. _He can't keep this up..._

Sakura thought quickly. She needed some way to give Syaoran more energy. Taking out Lady Jin would not be fast enough, and Syaoran might get hurt before she is finished off. How could she help Syaoran though? Perhaps the Thunder Card! If Syaoran channeled so much energy into the Thunder Card, perhaps the Thunder Card could do the same for a thunderspeaker? She looked up at Syaoran.

Hiko turned around and realized that the girl's entire attention was focused on the thunderspeaker. Hesitating only for a second to make sure no one else was able to predict his move, instead of shooting the fire at Chul he veered it around so that it headed straight for the girl.

Sakura drew out the Thunder Card, and the light from the card as she summoned it blinded her to the flames approaching her. She sent the beast sparking toward Syaoran, who for some reason was no longer looking at Lady Jin, but at her—

Out of her peripheral vision the fire loomed. In the next split second Sakura simply froze. Lady Jin sent fire at Syaoran while the Thunder Card approached him. Hiko was knocked to the side by Chul but the fire continued heading toward Sakura. Syaoran threw the white cloth at Sakura in the path of the fire.

There was a terrible explosion. The world lit up in white and yellow and blue. The earth and sky shook and echoed continuously from the resounding boom. For a moment no one was sure where the blast took place, if it was between Sakura and Hiko's spell, or Syaoran and Lady Jin. There was a heavy smoke, but that was not needed since the flash continued to loom in front of everyone's eyes.

When their vision returned, though their ears were still ringing, the elementals and guardians beheld Sakura, slowly uncovering her head as she had wrapped her arms over it to protect herself. Syaoran's white cloth drifted gracefully and lifelessly to the streets and sidewalk below. Lady Jin was gone.

So was Syaoran.

" Iie," Eriol whispered. It took a longer time for Chul to realize what the implications were. For the longest time everyone simply froze, taking in the scene but not understanding. Even Hiko was thunderstruck.

An ominous spinning sound suddenly whirred. A golden flash struck the buildings, bouncing off harmlessly, before heading straight toward Hiko. The firespeaker recovered his senses to dodge. The golden flash bounced against the building behind him, before returning to the clouds. From the sky a boy leaped down, red cloth around his shoulders and arms very much like Syaoran's white cloth. His hair was long and part of it was pulled up, and his costume a magnificent mix of red and gold. In his right hand was a flaming spear, and under his feet spun wheels of fire.

At the sight of him, Hiko spun around. With a flurry of light he disappeared into flame and shot across the sky in flight. The other firespeakers only hesitated seconds before following him. Prince Nezha slowed to a halt as he reached the same level as the remaining elementals. He watched the firespeakers depart.

Without another word he gazed down and the white cloth floated up from the ground. When it hovered in front of him he reached out to take it.

" Syaoran-kun..." Sakura whispered, eyes glued to the white cloth. She did not understand.

Nezha turned a sharp glance at Eriol. " I told you to keep him alive."

Had he not been as shocked as he was, Eriol would have plenty of responses to that one. However, he could only gaze almost listlessly at the white cloth in Nezha's hand.

Without another word, the god turned and his firewheels carried him back to the clouds, where he disappeared.

For a moment everyone remained frozen in place.

" Syaoran-kun," Sakura turned desperately to Yue, " Where is he? What happened?"

Equally stricken, Yue turned to Eriol and the waterspeakers.

" Elementals disappear when they die." Matt said gravely. Again there was a long silence.

" He's...he's dead?" Sakura blinked owlishly, still not comprehending.

" Hai, you baka!" Chul snapped, a sob hitching in his throat. " What the hell were you doing, just staring at him when there was a fireball flying right at you? Are you good for anything?"

" Stop it." Yue snapped, as tears welled up in Sakura's eyes. " It cannot be. Jin is gone as well."

" It killed both of them, you fool!" Chul lunged at Yue, but Matt held him back.

" It cannot have!" Yue reached up to his temple, shaken. " I...he was..."

" Some guardian you were!" Chul continued attacking, " He was a Li! He was as much your charge as that worthless Card Mistress of yours! What the blazes were you doing while Lady Jin was attacking him?"

" Stop this." Eriol grabbed Chul's arm. " It was not his fault."

" The hell it wasn't!" Chul shrugged Matt's hand off violently. With one last look at where Syaoran's white chou was, he disappeared into mist and sailed to the clouds.

Matt and Eriol shared a look. Silently, both elementals disappeared after Chul.

Sakura landed on the ground where the chou was and fell to her knees, weeping bitterly.


	18. Chapter 18

Song of Thunder

Chapter 18

Hiko helped tend to the wounded, though all the firespeaker really did was flame the area so that others would have the energy to draw it to themselves.

" Lady Jin was a grievous loss." Hiko nodded to another firespeaker, " But the death of the thunderchild is an even greater gain. Now the counter prophecy is no more, and we can fulfill our destinies as rulers of the elemental world."

" They are in mourning." Said one. " Now is the perfect time to finish off the lords. They are weakened and dispirited."

" As are we." Hiko pointed out. " Not to mention, the traitor prince watches over them, and I cannot yet defeat him in battle or will."

If the firespeakers thought it strange that he would call their very forefather a traitor, they did not comment. Lady Jin did her job well—early on she had established how Nataku kotaishi had abandoned the firespeakers for divine comforts in Heaven. He did not even encourage his firespeakers to pursue greatness or majesty along with him. Though the firespeakers had enough respect for him as their divine ancestor, their loyalty to him was weak at best. Nataku had even sided with other elementals to repress the firespeakers in the past, reproaching and chastising them for being who they were and using their powers, enacting laws that limited their freedom. Even when the firespeakers obeyed these laws, others still regarded them as destroyers and threats to stability, given their spontaneous nature. For most firespeakers, their regard lies with Hiko and his legendary might, and Lady Jin while she was alive.

" The other elementals will retaliate." Hiko warned. " And perhaps even the Card Mistress. She has proven herself a being of versatile, if not formidable, skills. We must not underestimate her, nor that reincarnation of Clow Reed. While the main obstacle is overcome, there are others we must tackle."

" What are our plans now?" Asked one firespeaker.

" The prince sends deity troops to locate us." Hiko replied. " You, head out to find them. Remain unseen. Report back to me how large the army is. If it is large we shall evade them. If it is small we will demolish them."

" Hai!"

" You four, scout for the other elemental parties. No doubt they are searching as well. See if you cannot find their leaders and report back to me. They must be using the Card Mistress's spell to brainwash, at the moment, and now would be the perfect opportunity to eliminate them."

" Hai!" A chorus of four voices answered.

" However, if they are surrounded by reinforcements, or if they are all located in the same spot, eliminate the girl." Hiko ordered. " I want the Card Mistress dead." 

oO

After Nezha went back up the final steps of the reconstruction commenced, and Syaoran's apartment along with the buildings around it were quickly rebuilt. Sakura was rudely wakened from her stupor and despair to assist with the finish. Despite the blow to the magical world, they had no time to lose. The memories must be erased as soon as possible.

Prince Nezha was kinder this time, his initial rage past, and offered to use her Erase Card for her while she merely served as the rendezvous point for the channeling energies of all five elementals.

It was a horrid way to learn, especially for Sakura, how the world moves on whether or not its occupants were able to follow it. When she had been three her mother died and it was a terrible blow to the young mind, but at the same time her youth proved merciful as she quickly forgot the void in her heart and sought affection from her father instead. Fujitaka had been a wonderful father, who saw to his children's needs even as he searched for ways to cope with his loss. In a way Fujitaka replaced Nadeshiko, and for a three-year-old love, whether from two parents or one, was all a child really needed.

There was no one to replace Syaoran. And this time it was so obviously her fault.

Reconstruction lasted throughout the night. Chul and Matt went with Prince Nezha to look after the Erase Card while Ritsuko remained to heal everyone and provide moral support. She did a fairly good job of the former and a fairly poor job of the latter, as she herself needed support and had little to give. The only reprieve they had was that Prince Nezha remained in the mortal realm below the clouds, and seemed to have intimidated Hiko into hiding so they did not have to deal with the firespeakers.

At the same time, however, for some, like Eriol and Yue, nothing would be better than to have the firespeakers come again so they get what they deserved.

Reconstruction commenced without a hitch, though the elementals were very tired. Matt warned that Hiko might choose to double back on them while they are vulnerable and placed elementals around to guard them while Sakura remained at home, remotely casting the spell. The windspeakers caught one firespeaker trying to spy, and killed her. The were not in the mood to be merciful.

At home, at first Sakura was in hysterics. She wanted to use the Return Card, or the Time Card, to go back to when everything went all wrong and bring Syaoran back. It was actually Nezha to warned her against this, not Eriol or her guardians. Eriol did not argue with Nezha, but he looked as if had the choice been his he would have cast the spell. Sakura could not understand and wept frantically, desperate for a way to save Syaoran and prevent all this from happening. Nezha could not allow it.

" As a friend, I would want to do the same." Nezha told her. " But as a god, there are responsibilities. Clow Reed made a promise when we allowed him to make the cards, that he would use them responsibly. Bringing back your loved ones is decidedly not. Too much was already risked with the necromancers bringing back the dead so that all is wiped out. It is hard enough to erase the effects of the satellite. Turning back time deliberately will be even riskier, and may in fact prevent the completion of reconstruction. Sumimasan, Card Mistress."

Sakura, having fought the issue for well over two hours, was finally too tired to argue with anyone anymore. Touya did his best to comfort his sister.

" No one expects you to be perfect, kaijuu." He told her affectionately and sympathetically. " Besides, you were helping him. You were trying to boost him. It's not your fault, and no one can deny that."

"Hai, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo agreed, holding her hand, " Everything will get better. You'll see."

Sakura was too exhausted for tears, and with her body buzzing with all the elemental energies, she gave no reply.

After the long night was over, no one slept, not even Fujitaka or Kero, who was very sullen as well. The elementals came back to the Kinomoto household, led by Prince Nezha.

" Elementals would have a hard time of things now." Matt sighed.

" At least we got a firebird." Nezha replied gloomily. " I really do not need a magical imbalance to ruin my days again. You all did what you could, I know that."

Eriol looked up at him. He had taken off his glasses and his eyes were watery.

" We're so lucky my parents do not know about this yet." Nezha paused, before spitting out what sounded like a curse in Chinese. " I have to tell them. There will be hell."

" Where are the firespeakers?" Sakura suddenly demanded. It was an abrupt swing from mourning to wrath. Her green eyes were like hard jade.

" That, I will not tell you." Nezha pointed at her. " You are more than capable of handling Hiko, I think, when it comes to versatility, but he has decades of experience on you. Not to mention you just finished brainwashing the world. We did input our energy through you but you are still weakened."

Sakura's fist tightened until her knuckles were white, but she had no argument against Nezha's logic.

" You do know where he is?" Eriol asked forcefully.

Nezha gave him a slight nod. " My soldiers have located him and the firespeakers. They were under orders to divide into two to call more soldiers from above. My father will not be pleased but this is the only thing I can do at such short notice."

Chul was strangely silent. Matt and Ritsuko had been staring at him the entire time, expecting him to make an acerbic comment on the girl's magical skills, but the Water Lord simply looked tired.

With half of the household extremely depressed and the other half fuming in rage but unable to vent, silence soon descended. Fujitaka went to make breakfast for everyone.

" I need to call home." Yamazaki suddenly rose. " Can I use your phone?"

" Sure." Touya nodded.

" I should probably call Oka-san too." Tomoyo got up as well. " She wouldn't remember why I'm here."

" Iie, she wouldn't." Kero agreed. He spun around restlessly in the air for a moment, before settling down again.

" Time to report to Daddy Dearest." Nezha gave a long-suffering sigh. " I will be back soon."

With a flurry of flame, the boy-god disappeared.

" We can help." Eriol suddenly said to Matt, almost out of the blue.

" We're all a bit worn." Matt replied, troubled by more matters than Eriol. " How about we all try to recover today and look for the firespeakers tomorrow."

" Wouldn't that be what they expect?" Sakura demanded. " If we go now we might catch them by surprise."

" Getting impatient?" Chul sneered. " How Japanese."

" Urusai." Ritsuko bit back. " I want none of your cheek. Matt, we're all worn out, but maybe we can get some of the others to attack Hiko and wear them out before we join."

" Good idea." Said the elite earthspeaker.

" Get the metalspeakers too," Matt folded his arms, " They might be able to control the meteors."

" They can't summon meteors anymore. Lady Jin is dead."

" Hiko can."

Gloom fell back over the group. For a while no one moved.

" Today is Monday," Touya looked up at the clock, " School starts in an hour."

Sakura dropped her face to her hands. " I can't go to school." She moaned.

Chul sneered. " How un-Japanese. Don't you people bounce back from deaths like it never happened?"

" Chul!" Ritsuko stared.

" Back to school, back to work, all with that cheerful facade. Don't tell me you're not like that." Suddenly Chul turned around and headed out the door.

" Where are you going?" The metalspeaker asked him.

" Out. I can't stand this house." Chul snapped, slamming the door behind him.

There was a long pause, before, with a sigh, the elementals began calling on their respective friends. Sakura's anger had been replaced with stupor again as she stared, glassy-eyed, at everyone around her. The world moves on with or without its occupants, after all.

oO

The deities were keeping the firespeakers busy. Not long after Hiko sent the scouts out, the deities located them first. The three surviving firespeakers who found the elementals came back to see their comrades fighting for their lives.

It took some time for Hiko to confirm that Nezha was not among them. The Fire Child defended against three of the soldiers and considered his options. To retreat meant a chase. Deities do not tire. On the other hand, just because Nezha was not among them now does not mean he would not soon join the fray.

He had to risk getting Nezha's attention. The prince would probably join of his own accord, once reconstruction finished. If Hiko could get his firespeakers out of the way before Nezha locates them again, that might save them a lot of time and deaths. He would have to send the meteors down. He had to kill all the deities.

With grim purpose, but no remorse or hesitation, he lifted his hands as Lady Jin did, and called for the firestars.

oO

The earthspeakers began murmuring amongst themselves in Arabic, rousing the ones sleeping. Ichiro looked over curiously as construction paused.

" What is going on?" The sorcerer asked.

" Er, your house might have to wait, Watanabe-san." Said one of them. " Got a call from Mo, said we need to go find the firespeakers and wear them out."

" Why?" Ichiro asked. He was not present for the final part of reconstruction, since he was not needed, and though when the metalspeakers and earthspeakers came to rebuild his house they appeared very gloomy and agitated, he did not really think to ask them the cause. " Did something happen?"

" The thunderspeaker is dead." Another earthspeaker told him gravely after a long, anxious pause.

Ichiro stood still for a moment. " Wait," He was extremely calm for some reason, " What?"

" Yesterday." Said the third. " The boy ran away from the Card Mistress. When they retrieved him the firespeakers ambushed them and killed the thunderspeaker."

Growing panic rose in Ichiro's heart. " They _what?_"

" We have to go fight the firespeakers and wear them out in time for the lords to take care of them." The first earthspeaker bowed a little. He turned into dust and burrowed down into the ground. The other earthspeakers followed.

Ichiro swore loudly. Then he swore again, and again. He stood in front of his half-finished house, staring blankly at the window panes, before suddenly jumping up.

" The firespeakers!" He snapped his head back and forth, before suddenly summoning his staff. He had to help as well. Then he hesitated. He looked up at the clouds for a moment. He frowned. He started in the opposite direction. He had to talk to Hiirigizawa first.

In midstep, however, he suddenly sensed a shift in the wind. Something prompted him to look up. His staff clattered to the ground as he stared.

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of lights were streaking across the sky. The air began shimmering and the lights grew brighter and brighter. Meteors.

" Oh no…" Ichiro whispered, and reached down to grab his staff before bolting through the street. He had to reach Hiirigizawa and talk to him. The child might be dead, but this is not over yet. There was no time for the ancestor to mourn.

oO

Sakura went to bed with her heart heavy and her world dark. She crawled under the thin blankets and stared out the open window. Fujitaka and Touya agreed that she did not have to go back to school the next day. Yamazaki and Tomoyo were not going either. 

It was not very Japanese, as Chul would say. Sakura felt another well of tears pouring out. She was hurt, but she was not angry with the Water Lord. She had seen sorrow in his eyes as well. She was not sure what she felt about the actual situation, truthfully. Whenever she thought about thinking about it, there was a terrible pain in her chest. Then she could not continue thinking about it.

In a way, she did not really fully realize that Syaoran-kun was gone…

The day had been miserable. Eriol had remained in the house with the others along with Yamazaki and Tomoyo. Yamazaki was the first to leave. Eriol and Tomoyo stayed until Sakura had to go to bed before leaving themselves. Yue remained in the house for the night. All of them could not help but feel that Syaoran should have been there with them.

Kero was silent the entire day as well. He still ate ravenously when there was food but it seemed to be more for comfort than appetite. When Sakura went to bed Kero said nothing except "Good Night" and went to bed himself. No matter how mean he was to the child, the death of the young one left him feeling empty as well.

" Kero-chan?" Sakura sobbed. She heard a flurry of wings as Kero came to rest in front of her head.

" Hai?"

" Kero-chan, it hurts." Sakura began trembling. " Kero-chan, it hurts."

Kero crawled to her and gave her a small hug. Sakura hugged her guardian close to herself and cried herself to sleep.

oO

Chul's angry footsteps led him to Syaoran's apartment. Reconstruction had been thorough—all of the child's belongings were still there.

He slipped through the door easily in his vapor form and looked around the apartment for the first time without other people around. Syaoran was neat, organized, and independent. The refrigerator was still empty, and the computer still turned on, presumably from when Matt was using it. In the living room he saw the child had pictures of his family, though curiously enough there was only one photo of his father, which was small and in black and white.

He stared at the photos for a long while, trying to imagine how the child was when he was with family. Perhaps Syaoran had been carefree, or spoiled, or perhaps he was simply intelligent and wily like all youngsters his age were. Though if the family photos were anything to judge by, Syaoran was probably very mellow, hardworking, studious, and…

_And alive. Does it matter now?_

Syaoran had simple needs. The quality of the furniture was good, but they were simple. He was taking advanced math and had math textbooks on a little shelf. He did a lot of reading in philosophy. He had books on herbs and acupuncture, though he seemed to rarely read those.

His school uniform was folded on the bed in his bedroom. Chul opened the closet and found himself drawn to the only green robes there were. It was small, made of silk, and was cute. He could imagine Syaoran wearing one of those when he helped the Card Mistress. There were even shoes and a hat.

Somehow the green robes seemed to represent the child more than anything else. He took the robes off the hanger and lay it on the bed, next to the school uniform. It was a little worn at the elbows.

_You're going soft._ He reproached himself. The child was a Chinese brat. So what if he died.

He recalled how the boy valiantly leaped from Yue's arms to save Ritsuko and Sakura. How he managed to hold his own with Lady Jin, if only for a little while. _This kid has enough inner qi to beat a qigong master. _He remembered Matt saying. And what was most amazing of all was, despite his obvious disadvantage, Syaoran did not show any fear at all. Chul thought back on the times when his position as Water Lord had been challenged and wondered if he showed the same valor. And Syaoran had died because he was protecting that Card Mistress.

_Only selfless people are fearless when their wellbeing is in peril._ He remembered Ritsuko once said. He remembered how other children, young elementals and sorcerers, remain inactive, looking fearfully, while the adults died trying to protect them. Even when it was obvious their guardian was losing, was about to get hit, the children still clung to the walls and trees, looking on stupidly as their guardians fell, and some even fled, leaving the very people protecting them to die slowly. Such were children…

He looked upon the robes and uniform for a long time.

oO

At first it was of that awful day. There was fire everywhere, and Syaoran was fighting for his life. She was staring at him, trying to warn him that Lady Jin was going to throw a fireball at him, and not to worry about her. But Syaoran turned to face her anyway, and she saw the flash of alarm pass over his face. She paid no heed to the fireball, but gestured wildly with her arms that he must hold on to his chou.

He threw it to her anyway. There was a bright flash, and Syaoran was gone.

But then the dream changed. It carried with it a feeling of premonition. They were sitting under a cherry blossom tree, Syaoran in white and green and silvery and gold robes while she was dressed in matching white and pink. Actually she was dressed in a kimono. She was a bit dazzled by all the colors on his outfit, though hers glittered enough with its red and pink shades. She suspected Tomoyo must have made it for her.

Syaoran's hair was just cut, though he looked bone-thin and there were tired shadows under his eyes. He was nervous but he gave her a tense smile. It was small. She had never seen Syaoran really smile that much. There was a strange light in his eyes. Mostly they were dim, but occasionally they sparked a little, with hope and fear.

" How did you make it?" She was asking. It seemed they were in the middle of a conversation. " I mean, you didn't have anything except qi. And when you threw the chou…" A feeling of guilt rose with that.

Syaoran was looking away, but he turned his face to her and grinned a little. It was still weary and a little uncomfortable, but warm. " You…fire…blast itself?" His words were muffled and seemed to escape from her mind as soon as she heard them.

" Hoe?" She blinked at him.

He gave her another smile. "…you saved me." He said.

The dream whirled, and she suddenly saw bits of the other dream she had earlier.

" That Card Mistress would be useful."

" If she sets the Thunder Card free that will confuse Hiko." The child said. " The Thunder Card is not as astrong as the thunderspeaker, but Hiko would not know that. Not yet, anyway."

" And once Hiko finds out he will come after her And once he does she is doomed."

" Not necessarily. First of all, how is Hiko to know? That Thunder Card is wily. Once free, it would be creating chaos everywhere. Hiko would be going around the world several times and not be able to catch that Thunder Card. It is fast, it is random, and best of all it makes no sense. Hiko would be in over his head."

_A lot of good that did. It only postponed the inevitable._ Sakura thought a little despairingly. But then she noticed something that did not happen in the other dream. At the very top, where her viewpoint could barely ascertain, was a pair of feet, like someone was sitting on the roof. And a bit of white cloth appeared a little bit, as if drifting in the wind. She was unable to look up, for as soon as she tried the vision faded.

With a gasp she woke. Kero flew out of her arms, alarmed. " Sakura?"

" The Thunder Card!" She cried, not sure why she was yelling this, but she kept yelling it anyway because somehow she felt it was important that she remember the Thunder Card. " The Thunder Card! The Thunder Card!"

Her cries roused Yukito, who knocked on her door. " Sakura-chan? Daijoubu?"

" The Thunder Card," Sakura sobbed, wondering why she was even bothering. It was not as if her cards could save Syaoran now. " The Thunder Card…"

" Sakura," Yukito finally dared to enter the room, with Touya close behind. He knelt by Sakura's bedside. " Sakura-san, he is dead. The Thunder Card can't save him now."

Sakura suddenly fell silent and froze. She stared at him wide-eyed.

" The Thunder Card." She said, almost stupidly. Yukito blinked.

" Sakura-san," He tried, gentler this time.

" The Thunder Card." Sakura suddenly leaped out of bed. She brushed past the two older boys.

" Sakura?" Touya asked worriedly. Sakura suddenly took out her book. She unclasped it and held out her cards, almost tossing them into the air so they floated.

Touya and Yukito exchanged a look. " What's she doing?" Touya asked, fearing for his sister's sanity. This fear doubled when, after a few minutes, Sakura released a high-pitched, half-crazed, ecstatic laugh.

" It's not here!" She cried.

" Nani?" Kero darted over, looking at the floating cards.

" It's not here!" Sakura repeated. " Syaoran-kun is alive!"


	19. Chapter 19

Song of Thunder

Chapter 19

It was vast and empty and it was home. He felt incredibly light. Wherever he wanted to be, he was there in a flash, but it did not really make a difference where he was.

Was he dead? Do the dead travel the clouds or gaze down from the stars and moon and sun? If they did, death was a pleasant thing indeed.

It was both exciting and calming. He felt like he had returned home at last. It was the sort of feeling one gets when the house looms at the window as the taxi approaches. After an exciting day of play, perhaps, which was both exhilarating and exhausting, home was both a comfort and a surprise.

It was amazing. He could see wherever the light touched. He could hear whatever was going on. He knew and saw and observed and learned. The fish at the bottom of the sea, though murky, were visible thanks to the glowing jellyfish that brought a little of him below. Up, past the clouds, he could see stars beyond stars, and the circling planets and moons and meteors and comets, galaxies spread out like maps. He listened to supernovas, and trickles of water underground, the bubbling laughter of newborn fawns, cracking of shells as the butterfly emerged, revealing its beautiful colors.

_Syaoran..._

Syaoran? He struggled to remember. He was Syaoran. He was a Chinese boy in Japan. Ah, he was a descendant of Clow Reed. He liked green and chocolate. There was this girl, a Card Mistress? Heir of Clow Reed? Successor? She had green eyes and a sweet smile. Every time he was with her, he felt happy. He cannot be with her in this form. He had to go to her in the form of Syaoran. The Chinese boy.

But as he began remembering, he recalled what brought him here. The fire demon, looming before him, spitting flames and smoke. The sudden loss of support and confidence as lives whisked out of existence. His family. His family had perished in the fire, the fire caused by, by firespeakers. He remembered the undercurrent of urgency, how people were after him, after his life. The sudden realization that without family he was nothing but a burden. Eriol's words, Touya's, Yue, the waterspeakers.

_Unwanted._ That was why he dove into battle. Better to be dead, then to live disgracefully indebted to other people, people whose lives would be better without him. They did not want him. Why should he impose himself on them?

_Nay._ Better to remain here, in this comforting nothingness, free from the trials and sufferings of life, so that others are free from him. _But what about Sakura?_

The girl. He was not ready to face her. She had seen him weak. She is okay now, she does not need him. He had saved her. He is not ready to meet her. Going back into his human form meant presenting more trials for others, especially her. She has not answered him yet, when he confessed. She probably should not. He was not sure if he could handle a broken heart.

Not to mention, he was not even sure how he was supposed to revert back into his human form. He was just certain he could, and he could figure it out, perhaps. But why bother? It was so pleasant here.

It was so much better here.

oO

" She's lost it." The prince hissed. He was uneasy after Sakura's claim as well. As a boy-god, however, he appeared to have learned the tricks to patience, so even when Eriol himself began losing what control he had over the growing anxiety Sakura was creating, Prince Nezha seemed rather collected.

" It's impossible." Matt told her. Chul sat on the couch, legs folded over and arms crossed before him, scowling.

" Why?" Yamazaki asked. " I mean, you didn't see him. How can you be so sure that he didn't, well, just blast somewhere?"

" What do you think he is, Team Rocket from Pokemon? Even if he did blast off he'll never survive the fall."

" What if someone caught him?"

" Sakura has had prophetic dreams before." Kero told Matt.

" Only when it concerns the Clow Cards." Yue pointed out to Kero.

" I know he's alive." Sakura wiped furiously at her eyes, though her expression was hard and stony. " I know what I saw. He's still alive. It's just the matter of where to find him."

" Listen, if he really is alive I would have known it." Nezha told her gravely. " Thunderspeakers have presence and I am a firespeaker. We sense each other even more easily than sorcerers can sense magic."

" That's only if he still has his core magic. Which he doesn't"

" Which was my point." Eriol told Sakura. " How do you think he survived the blast? Even with your Thunder Card?"

" I know he's alive." Sakura insisted. " I don't care if you don't believe me. I'll find him myself. You never answered how Lady Jin could have died along with him." She stormed out of the room with her book.

Tomoyo rubbed her eyes. She had not managed to sleep at all, but her friend's distressing condition was wearying her out even further. Fujitaka glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning. Sakura had called her friends over in her excitement, and Eriol had called his mansion to ask the elementals to head over to discuss the possibilities. Not that there was really much to discuss.

Exhausted, Eriol rubbed his temple as the phone rang. Fujitaka went to answer.

" It's for you." He told Eriol, who nodded.

" Eriol-sama," Nakuru's voice sounded as tired as he felt, " Hiko called hellfire."

Eriol was not sure how he tripped over, since he was just standing there, but the next moment he was on his side, on the floor. " _NANI?!"_

_" _What's going on?" Yamazaki asked.

" He's been calling it down for the past few hours, small ones though. But the others think that he's just saving the big ones for Park and Brightman."

" Where is this?"

" Mainland China. They're in the mountains."

Eriol cursed. " The Chinese build their bombs in the mountains, I think."

" Well, we better hope none of them get anywhere near where Hiko is currently blasting.

Eriol looked up, glaring at Nezha, " The firespeakers were calling down meteors in China. Know anything about that?"

Nezha folded his arms. " That, at the moment, I decided was none of your concern, since you had enough on your minds already. Excuse me for being considerate."

Properly rebuked, Eriol gave him an apologetic look, but Nezha was not affronted to begin with so the god nodded at him.

Matt swore under his breath at Chul.

" How is Sakura?" Nakuru abruptly changed the topic. Frowning in suspicion, Eriol answered, " She is trying to cope."

There was a heavy pause on the other side, and Eriol had a feeling it was not a pause entirely from sympathy. " Windspeakers are doing all they can to lessen the impact of the meteor shower. Tell Park to stay put and Brightman to follow the prince. Sakura has to come too."

" Sakura is currently indisposed."

" Sakura is going to condemn a lot of people to endless suffering if she does not. Japan's not the only one with a satellite playing mommy on it. Not to mention if this goes any further, assuming any of those weapons are within the mountain ranges we're going to have a problem. She has to stay focused."

" What do you want her to do? She's eleven!"

" She can erase the meteors."

" She's way too tired for that."

" She has to endure. Do what you can. At the very least send Brightman."

Eriol sighed. " How bad is it? Can you put one of the elementals on line?"

" Can't. They're either unconscious or tending to."

Eriol sighed again. " Alright, I'll see if I can snap Sakura back to her senses." He hung up.

" What's going on?" Tomoyo asked.

" Nakuru said the other elementals are asking you to help with the meteor shower. His Highness was to lead you." Eriol told Matt.

" On it." Matt disappeared and sailed through the doors with Nezha right behind him.

" Where did Sakura go?"

" Up to her room." Yue replied.

" Well, we better go talk to her. They need her. It's so late." Eriol took off his glasses to rub his eyes. " And none of us have slept."

" You're not supposed to go through this until you're in college." Fujitaka complained.

" What about me?" Chul demanded. " They say anything about calling for me?"

" As a matter of fact, you're actually supposed to stay here." Eriol suddenly frowned. " I have no idea why."

Chul swore. " Are you kidding me?"

" Iie. I think they are actually keeping you away from him."

" Nani?"

" That makes no sense. Wouldn't they want Park-san with them?" Yamazaki asked.

Eriol shook his head. " I don't know."

" This is ridiculous." Chul spat. " I'm not listening to this. I'm going."

" Park-san, ishimatte—!" But Chul was already in his vapor form and disappeared outside.

There was a long silence.

" Ugh." Eriol groaned.

" We better get Sakura-chan, then." Tomoyo said quietly. Her eyes were red.

" Let's go." Kero headed upstairs. The rest of the group followed, except Touya and Fujitaka.

" I don't like this." Fujitaka told his son.

Touya smacked the back of his head against the sofa. He really just wanted to sleep and wake up and his sister's not grieving and even that Chinese gaki was still around. How come his sister's card could not erase the blasted firespeakers?

Upstairs Sakura's room was closed. Kero turned the handle to find it locked.

" Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo called. " Come on, let us in. We just want to talk."

Silence. Eriol, suddenly frightened, pressed his ear against the door. No movement.

" Sakura-san!" Eriol called. " Are you in there?" He sensed. Her aura was a lot fainter than it should be. Then again, she did expend a lot of energy for the Erase Card, but still…

" Sakura come on!" Kero whined. " Don't lock _me _out! I want to sleep too!"

Eriol wordlessly took out his key and tapped the doorknob. The door clicked and swung open. The room was dark. Yue reached over and turned on the lights.

" She's gone." Yamazaki muttered. " Where to?"

" To find Syaoran." Eriol sighed. " This is way too early in the morning for this." _I failed with Syaoran and now I fail with Sakura._

" She's only going to make herself miserable." Kero landed on the bed.

Unable to stand it, Eriol turned around and headed downstairs. As he did he suddenly heard a splatter against the window, followed by many more.

" Syaoran-san," Eriol muttered as he stared out, " Were it raining then. Perhaps you would still be with us."

Upstairs Kero groaned loudly. " Oh great! It's raining again! And Sakura's in it!"

oO

Hiko sensed the three heading towards them. He was about to relocate, as he did four times already. An ominous shadow fell over him and the first drops of rain began to descend. Hiko glanced up and briefly decided, wistfully, that tackling against gods was not fun.

No it was not fun at all.

Happily, Nataku-kotaishi was also affected by the rain, which mean that he would not be so formidable. The prince drew up with his red chou flapping impressively about him and looked around, assessing the situation.

One of the firespeakers made the foolish mistake of attacking the god while he appeared distracted. Twirling his spear quickly Nezha blocked it, and sent the fire back to its caster. Matt and Chul were already in the midst.

Hiko considered Chul, who was attacking all the firespeakers in his way, heading towards Hiko steadily. The flames from the sky were not large enough to do the Water Lord much harm. The rain was strengthening him as well. However, Hiko thought grimly as he recalled Lady Jin's last attempt, there was one thing that could get rid of Chul for good, provided Hiko did it fast enough. He raised his arms to the sky as if in prayer, but something slammed into him. Spitting out coppery blood, Hiko turned around. It was that windspeaker.

" Wind Slinger," Hiko sneered. Matt Brightman might have knowledge and some wisdom, but his powers were no match for Hiko. He was even worse off than Park, " We were not properly introduced last time."

The Fire Prince moved to Matt's side, and Hiko knew the odds were not completely in his favor. He was expecting that, however. Matt was not so stupid, in fact Hiko would have been surprised if the Wind Slinger had tried to take him alone.

" You have the audacity to mock your forefather." Nezha's voice, though young, was powerful. " Cease this struggle at once."

" You did not try to order me before." Hiko jeered. " Why bother trying now?"

With one smooth motion that Hiko barely had time to register, Nezha shrugged off the cosmic ring and it flew, as if of its own accord, at Hiko. Hiko dodged, but Matt's blow came a split second later. The rain turned to ice, sharp shards that fell harshly against the firespeakers. Hiko felt his energy dim a little.

" You have no power over me!" The Fire Child roared, as the two of them began the nonstop assault. Though Hiko fended them off well, he could not spare the time or concentration to call the meteors.

The hail worked in Matt's favor, as the sharp ice were easy to direct with concentrated air flow, and Matt used them as his weapons against Hiko. It was hard to see, however, and with the firespeakers desperately trying to protect themselves, Matt had to dodge a few stray flames. Nezha did not use fire—it would not hurt Hiko that much. Instead the Prince was using his spear, stabbing and swiping and blocking Hiko from escaping. The prince had the slight advantage that he was not hurt by the stray flames, but he did have to dodge a few of Chul's attacks.

Swinging his chou, Nezha tangled Hiko in it. He pulled at Hiko, who tried to free himself and stay in place. Chul, who turned his attention to Hiko, began shooting his own attacks along with Matt's added force, and Hiko actively dodged.

Using the chou as his own weapon, Hiko tried to swing Nezha into the path of the ice. Nezha, more experience with such a move, merely spun along the chou so that it extended, and kicked his firewheels at Hiko. Hiko dodged, and the wheels nearly hit Matt, who jerked out of the way. They came spiraling back, one grazing Hiko's arm, the other rolling along the chou toward Nezha, who caught it with his foot. The other one Nezha blocked with his spear and hit it back to Hiko.

Then Hiko made a desperate move. Disappearing into flames, he tried to slip through Nezha's chou, but Nezha became flames right along with Hiko, and being the Fire Prince he trapped Hiko in the element. Matt raised a hand to stop Chul from attacking, since the flames were merged and they cannot attack Hiko without attacking Nezha as well.

It was a battle for dominance. The flames arched in the sky and zoomed down. Chul followed, furious and grieving, barely held in check by Matt's windy hold. The flames spread out and the air shimmered a little, but the thinner the flames the more vulnerable both firespeakers were to the hail.

" Stop the rain!" Matt ordered. The fire was becoming more spread out, and it was obvious Nezha could do nothing about it.

" Iie!" Chul snapped.

" I said stop it!" Matt cried. " Do you want to kill the prince as well?"

" I don't care!" Chul turned wild eyes at the Wind Slinger. " You hear me?" He screamed. " I want that man dead!"

" Prince Nezha can kill him!"

Swearing, Chul shrieked back, " Hiko is more powerful than Nezha! I want that man dead! I want all of them dead!"

With those words the hail fell harder, so that the sky seemed filled with it and they were buried in the ice. To his horror Matt watched the fire turn to smoke, but the smoke dove under the trees and he could still sense both their presences, still looming strong.

As the ice pummeled, cold and sharp, Matt felt Chul's rage in them and realized with a pang in his heart how much the other man had grown to care for the boy. The heartless Water Lord had compassion after all, but the child, with what wonders he did to Chul's heart, left a raging void with his death. As mad as Park Chul had been before, it was nothing compared to what he is now.

Nezha, distracted by the ice, was unable to stop Hiko, who took another daring move and stepped out into the storm. Raising his arms despite the pain and wounds, he concentrated, the the air shook in anticipation of the next threat. Bright in the sky, a dot at first, the meteor raced towards them, a huge ball of hot fire and metal. No hailstorm could cool that off, and as Matt stared up in shock while Chul looked down in dark glee at the panic his storm caused, the sky rumbled with a storm of a new kind as a young girl raced into the scene, her staff in one hand and a card in the other.


	20. Chapter 20

Song of Thunder

Chapter 20

Sakura learned what it meant to see Death.

It was fire, fire greater than any flame that could be created on this earth by natural means, and yet it was created by the earth. It charged as if furious for being lured away from its original course, and was so big that however the air strove to block it, the mass of iron and rock and crystal pushed on forward, through the dark clouds, through the impossible cold ice, and for all intents and purposes seemed to head _straight for her._

The world seemed to freeze. Suddenly there was nothing. No Syaoran-kun, no Tomoyo-chan, no Oni-chan, Kero-chan, Yue-san, Otou-san, or even herself. Just that dark omen of doom looming bigger and bigger before her eyes. She did not really feel fear. She felt almost empty. Perhaps there was no time to be afraid.

Chul suddenly stepped in, shouting, " You stupid Japanese girl!" Only Chul, she would think later, would have enough thought to yell a racist remark when situations were so dire. The meteor would not just kill her. It would kill everyone around her, and down in the dark mountains below her. The Korean shot a blast of ice that covered the meteor, but it melted away as soon as it touched just the tips of the flames. Nezha leaped up through the hail to try to push the meteor back but Hiko distracted him, forcing him to turn his attention away from the great threat with a stab from his own spear.

And the meteor no longer needed Hiko to direct it. It was solid, it was not his conjuration. It existed, somewhere out in space, and now brought here, all it needed was simple gravity.

" Sakura!" It was Yue's voice. How he got here Sakura had no time nor wits to ponder. " Sakura move!" He was too far away to help her. The meteor was heading down impossibly fast.

" We can't let the meteor hit the ground!" Matt was yelling, summoning all his formidable wind to try to halt the massive rock, but all it really did was make the fire blaze even stronger. The meteor was too large to begin with, but that was the very reason they could not let it hit the ground.

Far to the east, where the mountains stood calm and still as if unaware of the danger, the first ray of the sun poked from between the earth giants. It was bright red and very small, and would take a few minutes normally to grow significantly bigger. At least ten minutes would be required for part of the actual sun to shine through, and another five for the entire sphere to rise into view. It would take hours before the clouds passed so that anyone below them could actually see the sun. There was no time for hours, or even minutes though. As soon as that first ray broke free it bent in a way no light should bend on its own and hit Sakura in the chest.

_Hurry._ Sakura heard, two familiar voices speaking in synchronism. The voices were musical, and she could not tell whether it was the wind or her own mind. The voices were calm though, nothing like the whirlwind of terror taking over her thoughts.

Snapping into action, Sakura whipped out the Erase Card. If all else failed, she could erase the thing. Holding her staff up, she released it. The spirit sent tendrils of magic toward the ball of flame, and it started to shrink, as if disintegrating.

_Too slow!_ Sakura's mind called out in horror. It was still heading for her, almost on top of her now. She took out the Move and Shield card, but she could feel the pain of its heat already. _Someone help!!_

A thunderous clap boomed across the sky and several lightning bolts struck the meteor, causing an explosion so mighty Sakura was blinded and thrown nearly to the ground. Bits of flaming rock nearly scraped at her, huge chunks bigger than she was, but the Shield Card, though unable to stand up to the meteor as a whole, was able to protect her from the significantly smaller rocks. The meteor bits were still falling though, and not all of them were merely bigger than her. Sakura did not have time to look up, and perhaps she would see nothing but dark swirls from the flash anyway. She covered her head with both of her hands inside the bubble shield, which snapped about twenty miles away from the meteor's original target, but the rocks were still raining down due to the blastt and there was a series of further booms and claps as more lightning targeted the split meteorites. Rapid, till the whole sky seemed to be filled with nothing but flash and thunder, the meteorites disintegrated into dust in a matter of seconds.

The sun seemed to flare, and the clouds seemed to glow with its light. Chul's storm receded in shock as the clouds seemed to _pulse, _and the sky lit up in whiteness. All the elementals halted where they were, some blinded, some just gaping at the clouds wondering what was happening. Then chaos ensued as everyone began racing for their lives while lightning suddenly began bouncing around in the clouds.

This time even Chul could sense Syaoran's presence. It struck down from the sky to the mountains so that they cracked. It struck lower and tore a tree in half. It flashed around them vertically and horizontally and diagonally, branching out into nets, sparking, singeing their robes, a chaotic mess of light and energy. The lightning did not seem to be aiming anywhere in particular at first, but then it launched itself toward one spot in particular in the trees—Hiko's refuge.

Prince Nezha covered his head as the lightning cracked almost right next to him, but Syaoran was not targeting him. Hiko fled, turning into flame, but flames were not faster than light. Not two steps out and he was struck, and a huge explosion blasted through the air and trees and dirt. The harsh wind blew so that it seemed the tree trunk behind the prince would snap in half, and a whirl of leaves seemed to stab at him. Nezha peeked through his eyelashes while still covering his head. Hiko was gone.

The lightning was out of control, zipping in every direction in the air. Chul suddenly turned and dove straight down.

" Get low!" Matt yelled, not even swearing anymore. " Everyone get low and clear the area! Dive for cover!"

Someone pulled Sakura's arm. It was Eriol. She did not even have time to wonder where he came from. Perhaps he came with Yue.

" Hurry up!" He yelled.

Even the firespeakers were diving, but Syaoran was aiming for them, and though the lightning zipped past some of them too closely, Syaoran did not hit any other elemental. The firespeakers exploded like little fireworks as his lightning bolt hit, and would have been almost comical if they were not real breathing people not a second earlier. A spark of electricity dashed almost right in front of Sakura, and Eriol lunged down with further desperation.

It seemed like the world was shattering around them, exploding to pieces, splitting and crumbling. Sakura, despite herself, felt terrified. What has Syaoran become? This was not the friend she knew. This was a terrible, awesome presence. Mother Nature herself, enraged by her children. She thought she was also shattering. Surely, with all the catastrophe about her, she could not be whole and intact?

And then abruptly, there came a huge explosion, one whose force knocked Eriol's grip away and threw the two of them into the taller branches of the trees. They fell roughly through the splintering wood and leaves onto the ground. Sakura remained there, breath knocked out of her and her vision spinning as the roaring continued in her ears. Her staff was no longer in her hand. It was out there, somewhere, next to her, maybe…

Chul, having found cover first, watched the lightning with great concentration, only looking away when there was an explosion. He was terrified for Syaoran, because he knew what the elementals needed, and what they must fear. He dared not use his own magic to subdue the boy. The lightning became more erratic and random, zipping through trees and hitting the ground where normally no lightning would go. Some struck by Chul, but though he flinched he was not really afraid.

Nezha headed out, ducking through the trees and dodging the lightning bolts best he could, though it was unnecessary since had the lightning been targeting him, he had no way of moving fast enough to dodge. He merged with one of the trees that was burning and flared the fire up. The flames went up into the clouds, illuminating them in a dark blood red that contrasted against the pale white they had been earlier. It seemed fire laced across the clouds, evaporating a trail in its wake, and there were a couple of more flashes, as if struggling, but Nezha shot down in a stream of fire and landed, his red chou draping to the ground. He looked up at the sky anxiously as the lightning seemed to gather in the clouds instead of striking down.

More rumbles, this time further away, then one right above them cracked, scaring everyone witless.

Chul was the first, along with Yue, to see the final lightning bolt strike the ground and leave behind a child. He was dressed as he was the day he left, with the t-shirt and pants, bleeding heavily through his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. The inner thighs of his pants were stained as well, and the child toppled over almost as soon as he materialized. It was Li Syaoran in the flesh.

oO

Syaoran staggered and fell over heavily. He was violently sick. The abrupt transition from element to elemental was too dramatic and he felt like he was going to vomit. Actually he might already be. He was dizzy and the world was spinning and he was nauseous and cold and wet and he had no idea what was going on with him or around him. His muscles quivered and he could not stop shivering, or was he? He could not tell. He just felt like he probably should have been shuddering but he was not sure. His vision was going crazy with lights and black splotches and nothing made sense. Was he heaving dry heaves? That hurt. Actually, it felt like all his organs had become as hard as steel and were poking him every time he breathed. He was in agony. He really should have just stayed as light and not go through this. Then again, he was not going to just sit by while Sakura's life was in danger. He heard her call, for someone to help, because her cards were not fast enough, and as long as he had a conscience he was going to help her. Still, there was a roaring in his ears and everything was a mess and that was not enjoyable in the least.

" Xiaolang!" Chul yelled, shock lacing his voice. Without hesitating he raced to Syaoran's side.

Matt cursed. " That girl was right!"

" How is that possible?" Nezha looked at Sakura.

Sakura was getting to her feet, but the fall injured her badly and she could not even sit. The waterspeakers did not come to ease her suffering though, they were all dumbstruck by Syaoran, who was being cradled by Chul.

_Sick sick sick, _Syaoran felt like if he did not die before he would certainly be dying right about now. A familiar spell  
coursed through him—healing waters. Park Chul. The Water Lord.

Strong and soothing, Syaoran calmed down enough to realize he was in fact trembling, and was being cradled by strong arms. He knew it was Chul even if he could not see yet. He was not afraid though. Chul was comfort, warmth, and he was sick and cold and he needed whatever Chul was willing to give. Tender, though fervent kisses pressed against his forehead and bathed his face and head and seemed to chase away the hurt and ache. His eyes were closed. What was that about his vision spinning? Maybe it was just his head. He opened them.

Blurriness greeted him, the blood stinging his eyes painfully, but his senses, though frantic, detected Sakura was wounded.

" Sakura," He gasped out, and felt violently ill again. Chul doused him with healing water.

" Quick, go check on her." He heard voices, muffled though they were. " Oh Syaoran, you did manage to survive,"

Other voices joined in, and he felt kisses planting all over his face, tender and filled with love. He was still heaving a little, but it was easing. Or maybe he was just so weakened at this point that he no longer had the strength to heave. Was he even heaving earlier? A familiar hand took his.

" Syaoran-kun…"

Sakura. Sakura is alright now. They healed her. As long as she is well, he is fine.

" Sakura, get back."

There was a soft " Hoe?" and a murmur, " He's going into shock. We've got to get him out of here," And he was wrapped in something warm, probably someone's outer robe, and warm arms wrapped around him and secured him, and he was lifted from the ground.

Prince Nezha was cursing, but in disbelief. It seemed he had picked up some choice words from Matt, who was also cursing, though that was less of a surprise. He did not waste time wondering about possibilities or impossibilities. " It's a miracle, it's a miracle," He ended his tantrum, " The ice!"

" Use the Move Card!" Eriol told her. " We can't risk the time nor the magic to transport him the elemental way."

" You think the Move Card would be better?"

" It won't shock him any more than he is."

Sakura drew out the Move Card, almost uncertainly. " Everyone get ready."

_Go to sleep._ Chul's trembling mental voice told him. More kisses bathed his forehead and eyes and watery cheeks. _You are safe. Kami-sama, you are safe.  
_

Well, it was either that or go back to being lightning, because Syaoran was still violently nauseous and in agony. He had no problems with being asleep. He closed his eyes and was out.


	21. Chapter 21

Song of Thunder

Chapter 21

The next thing Syaoran knew, he had opened his eyes rather groggily and was staring at Touya's ceiling.

Touya's ceiling was white, with nothing really on it. There were a few cracks where the paint was coming off, but that was about it. The only reason Syaoran recognized it was because Touya had this special light in the middle of the ceiling. Where it attached to the top there was a ring of metal that was wide enough for Syaoran to see his own reflection from where he lay prone on the bed.

He could also see the top of Sakura's head, resting against the table right next to the bed.

Blinking a little, his vision clearing, he realized though Sakura was sitting the closest to him, she was not the only person with him in the room. Yue was there, Kero on his shoulder, along with Eriol. He noticed a couple of people with headdresses on and recognized them to be the elementals. Yamazaki and Tomoyo were leaning against the wall, wide awake, but they did not notice him.

He tried to sit up. He failed on the first attempt, his arm slipping and his body thumped against the bed. This woke Sakura, who stirred quickly, instantly awake. Syaoran did not notice at first, pushing himself up more slowly. Sakura reached over to help him.

Syaoran was too tired to be startled.

He looked at her tiredly. She seemed fine, if still worried. " Hey," She greeted him, genuinely joyous that he woke. At her voice Eriol turned around. It turned out he and the elementals were never asleep to begin with, and neither was Yue. Kero gave a loud snore though.

" Syaoran-san." Eriol stood and walked over to him. The elementals stood as well but remained behind.

" What happened?" Syaoran asked.

" You did it." Sakura told him. " You killed Hiko."

Syaoran could vaguely remember that, vaguely. Strangely enough, the concept of killing someone did not bother him. It did not seem to bother Sakura either.

" But then you transformed into your human form," Sakura went on, " And they said the change was too abrupt. You had a bunch of weird things in you, ice shards, debris, and you had bad internal bleeding and you were sleeping for three days. They said you were going to come out fine though. Ritsuko-chan was a great healer, and so was Park-san."

" Park?" Syaoran blinked tiredly. He looked over Eriol's shoulder to see Chul standing with a stoic expression on his face. " Thought he could not heal." He said carelessly, before realizing that was not the wisest thing to say in front of the Water Lord.

Chul appeared to blush. His cold complexion made it difficult, but he looked down, slightly bashful.

" We'll explain things later." Ritsuko walked over to him. " Hold still now and let me have a look at you."

As she checked over him a new doubt gathered in Syaoran's gut. Now that he is Li Syaoran again, he was not sure exactly what the future held in store for him now. He was not even aware of any conscious decision to return. He merely wanted to help Sakura, to save her. He did not intend on coming back fully.

What will happen to him now?

" You're okay." Ritsuko declared. " Do you think you can get up? Get a bite to eat? You must be starving."

His stomach certainly hurt. He was just not sure if it was with nausea or with hunger.

" I'll go make Syaoran-kun something!" Sakura suddenly hopped away before anyone could stop her. She wanted to help Syaoran feel better, and what better way than to make honeyed milk? Ritsuko said he should start with something warm and light. Well milk was not exactly light, but it was rich in nutrition and very nice to the stomach. And Syaoran needs something to make him feel loved.

Syaoran watched her depart with both fondness and dread in his gaze. He wondered if he will ever deserve her.

" Hey," Yamazaki looked at Syaoran, " You feeling better?"

Syaoran gave a stiff shrug.

Yamazaki hesitated. " We talk later, alright buddy?"

Syaoran slowly looked up at him. He hesitated before nodding a little.

" I'm going to go help Sakura-san." Yamazaki told him, before leaving. Tomoyo rose as well.

" I'll go help as well. We all need to eat."

Syaoran had the distinct impression that Sakura was genuinely leaving him to make him better, but others were just trying to run away.

He was partially right—they were leaving him alone with Eriol, Yue, Matt, and Chul. Kero hovered around above his head in the most distracting manner, but Syaoran could tell the little guardian was simply restless.

Eriol looked him over. " You up for talking?" He asked quietly.

Syaoran shrugged. " What's there to talk about?"

" You were in lightning form for a long time." Yue said to him gravely, almost like he was in trouble for it. " Not even Nataku kotaishi was able to sense you."

Syaoran shrugged. " I was using the Thunder Card. It's magic based. It's not really my fault if you guys couldn't sense Sakura's card."

" We're not blaming you." Matt replied. " We just wanted to know why you didn't change back. You changed back kind of haphazardly that time, but most elementals never get it on their first try."

" I didn't feel like coming back." Syaoran snapped suddenly, irritated. He was not in the mood for being blamed.

" Syaoran, we are not blaming you." Yue soothed. " We just wanted to ask you…" He fell silent.

" I'm really tired." Syaoran protested abruptly. " Can we not talk about this now?"

" What did you hear that night?" Yue suddenly asked.

Syaoran froze. " What night?"

" Syaoran, I know that losing your family has been hard for you—" Eriol began,

" I don't want to talk about this."

" Syaoran I saw it in your mind." Yue took Syaoran's hand. " You should have said something."

Syaoran glanced at Yue's hand holding his in disbelief, and then looked up at the guardian. He recalled the first time he saw Yue, the night of the Final Judgment. Yue had been a magnificent being, and still is. Syaoran had been proud, but he had already been humbled by Sakura, and in the presence of the moon angel his mind had been filled with awe. He felt honored to even be able to see the guardian, and actually the idea that had he passed the judgment, that the guardian would have been his, that he would have been Yue's master, never really crossed his mind. But he did remember thinking, and it seemed so long ago now, that Sakura was lucky to have someone like Yue to take care of her. And now in his renewed bitterness he was both saddened and relieved that Sakura seemed to be surrounded by so many people who were willing to take care of her, who were willing to put their lives at risk for her sake.

He used to have such people. He never really wanted any more than his family to be there for him. But now he wished he did, because without his family he literally had no one. Under Yue's cold gaze Syaoran felt what little of his reserve and resolve crumble, and he felt vulnerable and small, like his heart had been sliced open. He knew, even without seeing it, that his expression had crumbled too.

" Syaoran," Yue called him softly, aware of the rest of the people in the room but not really caring, " Syaoran I have not taken good care of you. Both Kerberus and I have not taken good care of you. We were both…we were both angry at Clow, somewhat, for leaving us." Kero hovered and landed on Syaoran's other side. The boy had raised his hand to cover his nose, although it seemed it was a half-hearted attempt to cover his lowered eyes. " And we resented the obligation to take care of his descendants just because they shared his bloodline. It was a reason why Kerberus was so intolerant of you from the very beginning, and was a reason why I ignored you unless it was for Sakura's sake. But even so, Syaoran," Yue squeezed Syaoran's hand with both of his own, " You _are _family, if not only through Clow's blood in your veins, but Clow Reed's spirit."

Syaoran looked up at him, eyes glassy with tears.

" There is no doubt you are his descendant, Li Syaoran." Yue told him quietly. He did not bother convincing Syaoran that they cared for him because of who he was, instead sticking with what Syaoran was more likely to believe. " As his descendant, you are family. And we are your guardians as much as we are Sakura's, whether or not you own the cards. Never hesitate to come to us, Syaoran, for anything."

Syaoran did not seem to really understand him. His eyes and expression were blank and he did not respond at all.

" What we were discussing that night, Syaoran-san," Eriol added, " It was not because we did not want you. It was because we did not know if you would want to come with us. What Yue said, Syaoran, goes for me as well. I may not be Clow Reed, but I share enough of his memories. You still have family in me, and in Yue and Kero and Nakuru and Spinel. It is your birthright. It is your right."

Syaoran felt tears spilling from his eyes. He was not really sure what to believe, but he felt comforted despite it all.

" You're not alone." Kero told him. It seemed to come out of the guardian easier than expected. Syaoran looked at him, more spent than before. The door suddenly opened.

" Syaoran-kun!" Sakura chirped. " I brought you honey milk for now, Tomoyo-chan and Yamazaki-kun are making more…" She looked at everyone uncertainly. " Ano…"

Syaoran wiped at his cheeks. " I'm alright. Honey milk sounds good."

Sakura gave him a bright smile and presented the tray she was carrying. The glass of warm milk wobbled dangerously but Syaoran picked it up before it could pull any tricks. The sweetened milk soothed his throat and his stomach and warmed him from inside out.

Sakura stood in front of him anxiously, so he gave her a shaky smile, which seemed to be enough to ease all her fears. He closed his eyes, exhaling deeply as she took the cup away from him.

oO

There was a lady weaving on a loom. Somehow Syaoran knew who she was. Prince Nezha, who he never actually saw before, was standing at her side. The two of them looked up at him.

_" Niang."_ Syaoran called. She was not really his mother, but it felt appropriate to call her that. After all, she was the mother of all elementals.

The Lady of Light was an elegant woman. There was a strength in her, as well as amazing beauty. She looked like an angel, like a divine creature, like a goddess. Her eyes were warm upon him as she spoke.

_" Welcome, Hiko's Bane."_

Syaoran did not answer. He knew he did not have to. Stretching his senses he could sense Sakura's aura. The Card Mistress must be dreaming as well, but he could not see nor hear her.

_" Niang is making you a homecoming present." _Prince Nezha told Syaoran. Syaoran looked upon the loom. The loom was huge, made of gold and mahogany, and upon it was a white shimmering cloth, like his own chou, glimmering with threads of gold and silver so that it sparkled and seemed to glow. The Lady of Light herself was dressed in white as well, with stardust in her hair.

_" Gave us a downright scare." _The prince went on. " _But you are well now, and in good hands."_

Syaoran doubted that, and his face must have showed.

_" The loss of you has taught the mortals many things." _The Lady told him. _" They will not forsake you again."_

Syaoran looked at the white cloth. " _What is that, Niang?" _He asked.

" _Park Chul will know."_ She replied. " _Talk to him more, child. He needs you more than you know. A Water Lord that can only kill is a poor lord indeed. You have unlocked what others cannot. Do not let it close."_

Syaoran snapped awake. _That was random._

He was startled for a second time when he realized that only Chul sat next to him.

They stared at each other in silence. Syaoran decided that this was one of the more awkward ways he ever woke up in throughout his entire life so far.

" Hey," Chul began uncomfortably, " Well, I couldn't sleep. The others are resting."

Silence dragged again.

" Are you hung—" But Chul was interrupted when Syaoran's stomach answered for him.

Chul could not help but grin at that. He was so fond of the boy already he could not maintain stoicism. Syaoran blushed a deep red and was glad the darkness made it hard to see.

" Think you can stay awake and make it downstairs this time?" The Water Lord asked him.

" Un!" Syaoran glared at him, still extremely embarrassed. He got up, wobbling a little, without Chul's help, but allowed Chul to help him out the door and down the stairs. Chul's warm hand on his made Syaoran feel tingly all over, that pleasant kind of tingle when one is moved. He helped Syaoran sit down at the table.

" I'll go heat something." Chul told him.

" What time is it?" Syaoran asked.

" It's three in the morning, but you were tired." Chul left his side.

Syaoran thought that Chul seemed different somehow, and that come to think of it, Chul did not seem to live up to his ferocious Water Lord reputation even that first time he met him.

_He needs you more than you know._

oO

Syaoran and Chul did not speak much while Syaoran ate. Syaoran wondered if Chul was just the kind of person to freely help himself (or his charges) to another person's refrigerator, or if it was something all Koreans did, or if Fujitaka had instructed everyone to help themselves to leftovers without asking for permission. It did not seem polite to inquire, and ultimately Syaoran realized he was extremely hungry, so much so that he did not really care. Even if it was not the most polite thing to do, he seriously doubted any of the Kinomotos, even Touya, would have minded if he had helped himself to food in the middle of the night.

" Were you dreaming about your mother?" Chul wanted to start a conversation, Syaoran could tell. Given his reputation, though, Syaoran was not surprised that Chul was very bad at it. The comment stung a little, but not as much as he had expected. Perhaps being light itself had cleared away some of the sorrow after all.

" Iie." Syaoran shook his head. " I…I was with the thunderspeaker."

There was a long pause. Syaoran went on eating.

" You call her 'Mother'?" Chul asked.

Syaoran decided he must have spoken in his sleep. " I don't know…it seemed appropriate."

Chul paused. " What did she say?"

Syaoran debated whether or not to tell him. " She said…she said that I'll be okay now. She was weaving something, and…and Nezha was with her."

" Nezha?"

" Hai. Nezha said she was making me a homecoming present. And then she started talking about you, but then I woke."

Syaoran studied Chul warily, afraid of Chul's reaction. However, as seconds ticked by there was none to speak of.

Syaoran finished his meal and Chul led him up to bed, thought Syaoran remained awake for a long time.

oO

" It has been a long month." Nakuru sighed, flopping down on the sofa the next morning.

" You missed all the action." Eriol remarked a little dryly.

" Still, I did no end of worrying!"

" When are you heading back to England?" Syaoran asked. He was curled up on the other side of the sofa with another cup of honeyed milk in his hands.

" Soon." Eriol replied vaguely. " Want to come?"

A casual invitation. Syaoran was silent for a moment.

" I want to go too!" Yamazaki spared Syaoran the awkwardness by interjecting.

" Don't you have plans already, Takashi-kun?" Tomoyo asked. Syaoran sipped his milk, troubled.

" Why don't you come with us to Korea?" Ritsuko suggested to Syaoran.

Syaoran was visibly startled. He looked at her, like a deer caught in headlights. Chul turned away from the group to look out the window.

" He'd have to learn a whole new language." Yukito was not happy with that idea.

" He would if he went to England too." Yamazaki replied. They all knew it was not about summer plans anymore, if it ever was.

" I know Korean." Syaoran suddenly admitted. The group turned to him in surprise, including Chul. " And English."

" You learned it before?" Sakura asked.

" Iie." Syaoran shrugged. " I was the sun, at one point. And the moon. I don't remember exactly what happened during that time but…I saw and heard a lot of things."

" But you weren't gone for that long." Kero frowned. " How could you learn both so quickly?"

Syaoran shrugged. " Magic."

There was a pause.

" That makes things a little easier, sort of." Touya opined.

" Hai!" Ritsuko smiled warmly at Syaoran. " Come stay with us. You'll meet other elementals, just like you. And wizards."

Matt cursed. " Wizards."

" Trolls."

" Elves."

" Sprites."

Chul rolled his eyes.

Syaoran looked intrigued though. " I get to _meet _trolls or do I get to _avoid _them?"

" Oh please." Ritsuko laughed. " They're not bad. They're very stupid and they just stand there and let people knock into them. You have to beat the drums in a certain way to get them charging, and even then you have to have a thousand drums to do it otherwise it doesn't work. But trolls are fun. And they're good for practice because when they do hit you it turns to dust so you barely feel a thing."

" What are they there for then?" Sakura asked.

" Practice. They're for kids. To practice their spells and stuff on."

" You need a thousand drummers in order for kids to practice?" Yamazaki cocked an eyebrow.

" It's more for ceremonies. It's complicated." Ritsuko shrugged while Matt cursed again. The waterspeaker whirled on him. " Brightman! Watch your language!"

Matt rolled his eyes at her. Syaoran had stopped drinking his milk. Sakura leaned over the sofa to watch the elementals. Syaoran looked up at her, troubled. Sure, they were all inviting and welcoming now, but he was not certain if it was right to jump at their invitations. While Ritsuko and Matt bickered he thought of the Lady of Light and how she had mentioned Chul needed him. He looked over at Chul, who was looking out the window. He doubted it. Chul seemed as cold as ever, even if last night he had been somewhat sociable. He was not sure he would be comfortable living with the waterspeakers. Or Eriol. Or Yue.

" Are you feeling alright?" Sakura whispered to him. Syaoran looked up at her emerald eyes and nodded, smiling mentally. At least Sakura is alright now. She had been so close to dying. Suddenly his own situation did not seem so bad, as long as the girl he loved was well and cheerful.

" Matt, how many languages do you know how to curse in?" Nakuru asked, and the topic of Syaoran's living conditions was dropped.


	22. Chapter 22

Song of Thunder

Chapter 22

They chatted for a while in the living room before Ritsuko suddenly pulled Chul to the side.

" I need to tell him something in private, if you'll excuse us." She said to Matt in particular. Before Chul could protest, the woman had him out the door and down the street.

" You and I need to talk."

She said it with the teapot stance, the one then Chul normally associated with dictatorial wives, a posture involving one hand at the hip and the other pointing accusingly. Ritsuko was a bit too thin to look like a teapot. There were some that resembled it though, in a very scary kind of way.

" What do we have to talk about?" Chul asked, annoyed. He had enough on his mind. " This what you bring me out to the sidewalk for."

" Well I couldn't let others overhear!" Ritsuko scowled at him. " I was doing it for _your _sake, Mister!"

" What is it then?"

" You want the kid to come with us."

" I said no such thing."

" That's your problem."

" I have no problem. What's your problem, you crazy Japanese wench?"

" Chul!" Ritsuko grabbed him by his robes. " You stubborn jackass! I'm your friend!"

Chul grabbed her wrists in response but did not pull them off. She was right, he reflected. She had always stuck by him. She always seemed to know what he was really thinking, even if she does lose her temper once in a while. And she knew him well enough to realize his true feelings.

" If you don't tell the boy how is he going to know?" Ritsuko let go of him, and Chul let go of her wrists. Hands at the waist now, she continued saying, " The kid knows we're the best choice. You saw his reaction."

" He was just surprised you offered. We're not his family."

" But we're elementals. Just like him. He can be properly trained. Any problems he runs into now, we can take care of. We can handle. Not even Hiirigaziwa can boast that. And," Ritsuko folded her arms, " I know you want it. You want to adopt him."

Actually, Chul had not thought that far ahead, but although his initial reaction was alarm, the thought was much more appealing then he would have imagined.

" You need him." Ritsuko argued. " He's the reason why you can heal, all of the sudden. Have you ever wondered why you totally stunk at healing? It's because you were always filled with so much hate and bitterness. Healing is a skill that requires compassion. It requires the courage to help others at the risk of being hurt. It requires empathy, sympathy. It requires _love."_

Chul swore at love, starting back toward the house.

" Don't lie to me!" Ritsuko grabbed his arm. " I won't have you go back to that self-pitying bastard you were!"

" I did not pity myself!" Chul whirled around and spat. " I never did."

" You so did." Ritsuko retorted with equal vehemence. " You keep denying it. But every time you call me a Japanese bitch in front of others, every time you make some racist remark, you're feeling sorry for yourself. You make a show of blaming everyone else for your old misfortunes, for your mother's death, for your own conception, but really you just think you're worthless and you're taking it out on everyone else. And you push everyone away so that you don't get hurt again, because you were a coward! This child needs you! This child has done no wrong! This child is hurting, he's lost his family the same way you lost yours!"

Chul had been furious at first, but the rage was fading away to weariness. He was silent for a long time as Ritsuko breathed heavily to rein in her temper.

" He doesn't need me." The Water Lord finally replied tiredly. Suddenly he felt so terribly old. " He has that guardian. And Clow."

" It's not the same." Ritsuko's voice was quieter as well. " They don't have what you have, Chul."

Chul snorted. " And what is that?"

" Time." Ritsuko replied. " They both have to split their attention. Syaoran would be a third wheel and he'll always feel that way. You have no obligations to anyone. You'll make a good father."

Chul snorted again. " I'm the poorest role model next to Matt, you crazy woman."

" You can be decent when you want to be. I've seen it."

_She'd know._ Chul thought wryly.

" At least try." Ritsuko's voice was gentle now. " You've done a lot of good in your life. You can offer the thunderspeaker much more than the rest of them. He'll make many enemies with or without you to guide him, just because he is the most powerful elemental in the world. And you know about the Council of Magic. He'd be expected to participate, whether or not he's ready. You think the moon guardian knows how to deal with this? He might be Yue, but he is still just a guardian. And Hiirigaziwa Eriol has given half his powers to the father of the Card Mistress and will return to England to attend his own business. Syaoran will not be happy there. You dealt with people for a long time. But most importantly you genuinely care for him. And Syaoran needs that above all else."

" The others care for him too."

" The others can't change for him, even if they're willing."

Chul looked at Ritsuko. _She is very beautiful._ He thought idly, an effort to distract himself from the whirlwind in his mind. _In that strong kind of way._

" Go talk to him." Ritsuko insisted.

oO

Lunch commenced with lively chatter among the younger members in the house. The Japanese, at the very least, were very anxious to get everything back to normal. Syaoran had very little to say, but Sakura was not discouraged because he had always been that way. While Chul merely sat there with a stony expression and everyone else socialized, Syaoran considered his options.

Certainly, everyone else can go back to normal. But he came out of the ordeal with far greater losses. Being light had washed away some of the sorrow but not the fear. He was unconsciously wringing his hands, a habit he only developed recently.

Chul watched.

" I think I will pass." Eriol told Ritsuko. " Councils were never my thing."

" Indeed." Ritsuko laughed. " But now we know you've been hiding. There's no more running away from responsibilities now."

" What responsibilities?" Eriol grinned though he did his best to look mortified. " I never had any responsibilities! You must be talking to the wrong sorcerer."

A spark flashed from Syaoran's hands. Syaoran glanced down, alarmed, but the spark was small and only he felt it. He looked around to see if anyone else noticed. The others were continuing to talk, while Eriol kept denying he had any reason to attend some council of sorts. Chul's eyes were intense upon him, however, and a little at loss, Syaoran put down his hands and made an effort to keep them still. Chul's eyes never left him, however, and this time the self-conscious spark caught the attention of everyone else.

" What was that?" Yamazaki asked, after a moment of silence.

Syaoran hesitated. " I don't know." He finally replied. And it was true.

" Are you alright?" Yukito asked.

" Hai, are you short circuiting or something?" Ritsuko gave Chul a meaningful glance.

" …I think," Syaoran blinked as another flash appeared and went, " I need help with this."

" It's linked to your emotions." Chul told him, and Syaoran twitched as another spark sizzled.

Syaoran hesitated, feeling awkward. " Oh."

Feeling almost angry at how his powers betrayed him, Syaoran looked down to avoid everyone's gaze.

" Maybe if we go to the garden?" Yamazaki grinned at Syaoran. " You guys can show me other tricks with magic. Can curb your restlessness too."

" Hai!" Sakura approved enthusiastically.

" Working in the garden," Actually, Tomoyo had been sewing up something. When she said that Syaoran looked over and suddenly remembered the dream, which he had forgotten for a while. He glanced at Chul, remembering how he confided in the waterspeaker. Chul looked away.

Syaoran's eyes darkened in contemplation. He wondered if the dream meant anything significant.

" Is that for Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked Tomoyo, gesturing at the cloth.

Tomoyo grinned, which was enough of an answer.

" Come on," Yamazaki helped Syaoran to his feet. " Let's get some fresh air and hopefully that sizzling will stop.

Syaoran doubted it, but it was a good enough cover for his own troubled mood.

While everyone prepared to go out Chul reached out to touch Syaoran's shoulder, sending a wash of healing water in case something was actually wrong with Syaoran. Startled, the boy froze and stared at him. Chul debated whether or not to tell him right there.

Behind them, Yukito watched, lips turned slightly downward.

oO

The gardens served to distract Syaoran well, with Tomoyo completing much of her sewing. But as everyone headed back to the Kinomoto Residence it became increasingly apparent that the quiet peace they were currently enjoying would not last. Eriol still had to return to England. The waterspeakers still had to return to their respective countries. And Syaoran had to choose.

_Who to inflict?_ Syaoran thought humorlessly, as dinner passed and night arrived. He thought about Eriol and how awkward it had been to learn the boy was actually much older than he appeared. He thought about Yue and how the guardian froze when it came to choosing between him and Sakura. He thought about Chul's familiar healing waters, the spell that sent warmth and comfort to him back before he knew he was being cared for by the infamous Water Lord. But then Chul _is _the great Water Lord. He doubted that the watersepeaker would be all that thrilled if Syaoran decided to go with him.

Even if, despite not knowing him well at all, for some reason part of Syaoran wanted to.

_It was just healing water._ The boy told himself._ Doesn't mean anything._

He felt his forehead, feeling slightly wretched. Chul's kindness when he had been at his most vulnerable affected him more than he dared to admit. And the first thunderspeaker's words were either real words or a reflection of some inner hope. Chul would not expect him to be anything other than who he is. The others, they knew the old Syaoran, the Syaoran who had the confidence of a whole family backing him up. Chul was a waterspeaker, which meant he understood the ways of elementals. And he would not think any less of Syaoran than he probably did already.

Everyone had school tomorrow except Eriol and Syaoran, Eriol because he was actually supposed to be in England already, and Syaoran because Fujitaka kindly took the liberty of calling Syaoran in sick. And everyone else had school, because, according to Chul, " the most annoying trait of the Japanese is how they always hop back on their feet the next day", and what better way to get things back to normal than to resume normal routines? Syaoran did not find this to be a negative attribute at all, even if it made him feel a little bit singled out since he really had no way of going back to normal again. Chul, however, said this with genuine vehemence, almost offended, and the puzzling thing was Ritsuko seemed to grudgingly accept his grumpiness.

Syaoran could hardly expect the others to stop their lives for his sake. It was the reason he had been so on edge in the first place. And with the events winding down, he could not help but feel a slight bit of self pity, because everyone else could move on but he could not.

oO

At around 2 A.M. Prince Nezha paid Syaoran a visit. Nezha was dressed in robes now, instead of the sparse outfit he usually wore for flexibility. Syaoran did not get out of bed to greet him as he might have done, because Nezha sat on Touya's bed, turning on the lamps with magic, and crossed his legs in a fashion that suggested they were in for a long conversation. Something about cruising the clouds gave Syaoran a level of comfort with the god that he probably would not have had before, and when they spoke they spoke as if they were old friends.

The boy god might have raised a soundproof barrier, but Syaoran kept his voice low anyway, and the firespeaker did the same.

" You could have visited earlier." Syaoran accused. Not that he would have imagined himself being worthy of a visit from a deity, but considering the fact Nezha had seen fit to visit other mortals, and Syaoran had needed much guidance these days, he could not help but feel a little put out.

" I would have." The prince huffed a little in irritation, but not at Syaoran. " Father decided it was best to report to the Jade Emperor, as if he did not know already. And you know how procedures are. They are all unnecessarily long and tedious. Not to mention Hiko managed to injure me, and I had to explain why I could not handle my own elementals and keep them from destroying Japan once over. It was a big mess. The only thing that kept the Jade Emperor from sending me to Hell for three years is _Niang_ would come back in full force, and even the Jade Emperor would not dare to stand up against her. Not to mention this is entirely not my fault." The prince folded his arms sulkily, suggesting that perhaps he had been blamed anyway.

" Are you alright now?" Syaoran asked Nezha.

" Yes." Nezha stretched his legs out. He was a good head taller than Syaoran, but still looked pretty small. He wiggled his toes under his white socks and yawned. " Everything regarding the firespeakers is pretty much settled now."

" Must be hard." Syaoran grimaced.

" Egh, each element had its own period of disgrace. The waterspeakers...the earthspeakers, they all had it." Syaoran had a feeling Nezha had avoided commenting because of Chul. He did not really need to be reminded of the Water Lord's reputation. " It's all good. Quite frankly, we had it coming, really. Everyone else had a bit of discontent at least twice or three times already in the past a thousand years or so. The fact we kept it down for so long...I am a bit pleased, for how things turned out in general. Once the rest of the firespeakers calm down, things should get back to normal."

Nezha then gave Syaoran a look. " Scared, hm?"

" Uneasy." Syaoran corrected with a scowl. " I mean, it was really a question of where to go now. I know if worst comes to it I can always, you know, leave all this behind, if I really really want to."

" Well, at the very least, you have Heaven." Nezha grinned at him. " No one can deny you the right to be up there. And I can use a companion." He flashed a brighter grin at Syaoran. " Although for your sake, I would not recommend it."

A little discouraged, Syaoran asked, " Why?"

" Crazy people up there." Nezha turned his body around, deciding to just lie flat next to Syaoran. " You would not be happy. Heck, even I am not happy sometimes. Besides, you have someone here who is much better than anyone up there, for you at least."

" Who?" Syaoran asked, suddenly finding none of his current choices appealing.

" You know who. _Niang _told you."

Syaoran hesitated. " I don't want to go with Chul."

Nezha rolled over to face him. " Why not?"

Syaoran hesitated. " He scares me."

The prince raised his eyebrows. " He does?"

" Well...not that way but," Syaoran slid his body down to lie flatter, and stared up at Touya's ceiling. He suddenly raised an eyebrow. " Why don't you have a reflection?"

" I'm invisible to everyone but you."

" Does that make me crazy?"

" Not any more than you usually are. Answer the question."

" It's kind of intimidating."

" He intimidates you? What did he do?"

" Nothing! He's only the Water Lord, you know!"

" And I am only the Trickster God and Father of Firespeakers! You are not intimidated by me, are you?"

Syaoran scowled. " No. You don't have a reputation of being all harsh and cold and exploding infants."

" Hey, I did my share of killing." Nezha sat up. " I killed a Dragon Prince, let us see, killed a bunch of demons, killed this sorcerer group with my awesome firespeaker powers, not to mention when I get really angry I tend to cause forest fires around places that are suspiciously close to whatever I am angry at. Not to mention I have killed children too and am glad for it."

Syaoran folded his arms.

" I miss them." He muttered. " They're not in Fengdu, are they?"

" I shouldn't think so, but I don't know, actually. We don't really manage the affairs of the dead, if they have any."

Silence descended for a minute.

" You would not enjoy being all that mothered anyway." Nezha pointed out. " Assuming Chul does not become a mother hen."

Syaoran's expression must have given away his opinion of that. Nezha laughed.

" Hey, it could happen."

" I don't know…"

" Before, Chul could not heal. Now that he knows you he can heal all of the sudden."

" Really?" Syaoran frowned. " He could not heal?"

" You did not know that? The only other reputation that precedes him is the fact that he totally stinks at healing. As Ritsuko so wisely pointed out earlier, it was because he did not have the nature to heal. All he wanted was revenge, revenge on the people that he thought ruined his life. So he became the Great Water Lord, killing and killing and killing. He loved nothing, not even himself, so he could not heal."

" Why didn't he just…" Syaoran began, then stopped.

" Do what you did?" Nezha shrugged. " No one could figure out why. Neither could he, as far as I know. It kind of puzzled everyone, and a lot of people, waterspeakers included, wished he would just take off and join the ocean. Would have spared us a lot of grief, that. I do not know why he never did. Maybe he was waiting for you."

The two fell silent after that. The crickets sang outside the window as the wind blew. Syaoran managed to fall asleep. Somehow he knew Nezha would stay with him till morning, and he did not mind at all.


	23. Chapter 23

Song of Thunder

Chapter 23

Yukito struggled to keep his eyes open. He reached under his glasses to rub them, regretting not for the first time that he had gone to bed so late. _Yue's a moon guardian, so how come I can't pull late nighters._

_Even I need sleep._ Yue quietly replied in his mind. It was strange, Yue almost sounded like his own mental voice, the way one would ask a mental question and then mentally answer when the response was obvious. Except this time Yue was a whole other entity.

_Might as well get used to it. _Yukito thought.

Actually, with the number of inconsistencies in his life, it was a wonder Yukito did not notice it earlier, that his life was almost like an illusion of sorts that he only half lived. This might be the reason why truth to be told, when Yukito found out he was hosting the guardian spirit of Clow, he was not so much frightened as disappointed.

Syaoran is staying home today. Granted it was not his home but from the looks of Fujitaka's excited hustling, which surprisingly did not wake the boy up, it seemed the elder Kinomoto was more than willing to make the place as welcoming as possible. For the moment, anyway. Sleeping in was one of Sakura's bad habits, and would normally incur criticism, but this time everyone was willing to let Syaoran sleep as much as he wanted. If it made the boy feel better, why not? It was not as if he did not know how to face anything. Syaoran had enough to face once he woke. Procrastination may or may not make it better. And apparently, from the sounds inside the house when they all left, Syaoran did not need anyone to remind him that he could not hide forever. Or perhaps he did, just from his stomach.

Yukito covered up another yawn and wondered when the day was going to be over. He did absolutely none of his homework and was thankful that the teacher was both too lazy to collect them and he was fortunate enough not to be called up to write the answers on the board. Touya was not even pretending to stay awake. The other boy was dozing with his head on his chest. Yukito wondered if he would draw the attention of the teacher by waking Touya. This was the time when Touya's height played a distinct disadvantage. Yukito could probably get away with napping since the guy in front of him could obscure his face, but Touya was too tall for such a trick.

A clenching pain gnawed at his stomach. He was hungry. Yukito sighed and thought about what they said about American schools. Apparently kids could get away with eating their lunches in class.

He really wanted to have his lunch in class. Or perhaps go to the restroom and take a detour to the vending machines.

There was a sudden rustle in his bookbag. Yukito glanced down in alarm, and Touya's eyes snapped open and narrowed.

Kero poked his head out. " Psst."

Yukito stared in disbelief. " What are you doing here?" He hissed, hoping the student behind him was not paying attention.

" Came to talk."

_" Now?"_ Yukito glanced behind him briefly. The student was snoring. Oh good. " I'm in class!"

" Now you aren't." Kero gave him a cheeky grin as the bell rang. Lunchtime already? Yukito must really be out of it if he had not realized that yet.

" Get back in!" Yukito hissed, as the student behind him woke with a start. Too late, because the sensei was already standing by his desk, arms folded and a glare.

" Yoshihara," The sensei began sternly, " Please stay after class."

Touya threw the student a sympathetic glance. Even the best students had that sort of lecture. _If you want to get into a good university you must pay attention in class or else your grades will not improve. If you don't pay attention in class you won't qualify in the entrance exams and if you don't get into a good university you won't get a good job yadda yadda yadda do you want to end up on the streets yadda blah blah blah..._

Sympathy did not mean they cared to stay behind and listen to that lecture along with the student. Touya waved Yukito up and Yukito swung his bookbag over his shoulder, slowly this time to avoid crushing Kero, and headed out into the hall with Touya.

" What did Kero want?"

" To talk." Yukito gestured with his head to the yard. " After we get the food?"

" Sure."

oO

If anyone thought it was strange that a strange white-haired guy was standing on a tree near the fence talking to a floating stuffed animal, no one really made a point to comment. Touya kept glancing back and forth nervously while Yue, in about as much of a fit of temper as the introverted guardian could possibly get, argued with Kero. The good news was, Yue looked rather inconspicuous among the branches. It was probably that sort of ghostly aura that he usually had that made him look a bit translucent. From a distance, it looked like Yue was anyone, really, and hopefully people just assumed him to be Yukito.

Of course Touya did not know that.

Yue was normally very conservative about magic in public. He would not reveal his true form when others are around unless there was some dire emergency. Touya failed to comprehend how talking about Syaoran's living conditions during school constituted as a dire emergency.

" I want to." Yue folded his arms, ice lacing his words. The way to tell, Touya mused, when Yue was angry and when Yue was merely being his cold, dispassionate, criticizing self, is the eyes. There is really no way to tell from his voice alone; Yue speaks in the same cold fashion no matter what mood he was in. But when he is merely being his cold, dispassionate, criticizing self, his eyes were sort of dull, with that half-lidded, almost sleepy expression. Like he was bored. He probably was. But when he gets angry his eyes flash, like those of a tiger at night. Touya was exceedingly happy he was not the one receiving the end of that glare.

Apparently Kero had weathered it enough to be able to handle it with ease. Or maybe the guardian did not even see the glare.

" Hey, I'm all for helping out the kid. But Yukito's going to college! You're going to leave him in the house all by himself? That's kind of not good you know. Heck, the kid knows how to take care of himself, sure. But he needs a family!"

" Who said Yukito has to go to school?"

" Wait, what?" Touya jerked his head up so that his neck hurt. " Wait a minute, you're going to stop your education just for the kid?"

" Do I need the education?" Yue pointed out. " Does Yukito? He has been living quite well without it all by himself."

" Well, yeah, because he was underage." Touya was very unhappy now. " You can work something out, surely? Maybe just apply to the college in Tomoeda, that way you can come home. And schedule classes that end when Syaoran's classes end."

" That could work too."

" What about Sakura?"

" What do you mean what about Sakura?" Yue was preparing to jump down.

" There's a reason Clow made two guardians, you know!"

" So?" Yue folded his arms and glared at Kero again.

" What's gotten into you anyway?" Kero hovered back and forth. " You've gone all sentimental."

It seemed to hit a nerve, for Yue visibly faltered. Touya glared at Kero this time.

" Why are you so intent on not helping the kid? Heck, he and I weren't on the best of terms, but this is an eleven-year-old kid we're talking about! He's even younger than the kaijuu!"

Kero gave him a long suffering look. " I do want to help the kid." He seemed at loss as to what to say. " It's just, to put it politely Yue, you'd make a lousy caretaker."

Yue's expression closed over as he contemplated this, and Touya had a feeling that Kero knew he was going to hurt Yue's feelings, which was why Kero had been going on that strange tangent.

" What do you mean he's a lousy caretaker?" Touya came to Yue's defense. " Has he taken care of kids before?"

Kero gave him another long suffering look. " Get real. Kid looks at him the same way he looks at that Water Lord. You want to catch him calling Yue a stuffed animal?"

True, Touya mused. Syaoran did seem to look upon Yue with awe. And actually, so did his sister. Yue had that aura about him that demanded respect.

Even fear, probably.

" It's not like the kid was jumping at your invitation when you gave it to him." Kero pointed out to Yue, who's face looked more and more stony, if it was possible. " Why do you think he wasn't?"

" He's prudent. He's a smart kid. He's not going to stupidly inflict himself on others."

" Hai! Especially since Yue is such a warm person." Kero folded his little arms. " Gomen nasai, Yue."

Completely fed up with how hopeless the situation was getting, Touya grabbed Yue's lunchbag and took out his pork bun and bit into it. The juice ran down his chin and he wiped it grumpily.

" I want to take care of him." Yue folded his arms. " You already have Sakura wrapped around your...paw."

" Wait, is this some sort of competition?" Touya raised his eyebrows.

" Iie!" Yue snapped, annoyed. " I want to take care of him. Kami knows, he already has a bad enough impression of me."

_Hm, Yue might be right there. _Touya bit into the bun again. _Let's see, Final Judgment the kid gets the living daylights kicked out of him. By Yue. Rest of the time Yue ignores him, and then he nearly got killed by the firespeakers. Because of Yue. Sounds like a recipe for bad impressions._

Kero folded his arms and was silent for a while.

Touya bit into the bun again, chewing. Actually, he reconsidered, he was probably so fed up because he had no clue where the hell Yue's sudden mother-hen instinct came from. He really would not have minded, really, except he had _no clue where the hell Yue's sudden mother-hen instinct came from. _Effectively leading to the question of _who is this guy and what has he done with Yue?_

Probably Kero has seen this side of Yue before because the guardian merely looked very sympathetic, which annoyed Yue to no end. At least that side Touya has seen before.

" He kind of needs someone who, you know, cares." Touya winced as Yue's glare was now sent his way. " I mean, you're not that sentimental." Touya took a moment to consider that he was talking to a legendary magical being who was, as he said, not that sentimental and also happened to have the ability to kill him if he so desired. " Ano, he probably might need a bit of, eeto, cuddling, if you know what I mean. You know, the thing that involves a lot of hugs and kisses and pep talk."

It was Kero who sent him a funny look, one that clearly said ' Li Syaoran: hugs and kisses?'

" Hey, he didn't seem to mind that much when it was the Water Lord that was practically strangling him with hugs."

" Ano, he also seemed to be a bit unconscious when that happened." Kero's teddy-bear face did not lose its skeptical expression.

And, Touya made sure to note, even if Yue did suddenly adopt that kind of nature, it would most likely traumatize the child. _Hell, it would traumatize me._

" You really want this don't you." Kero suddenly turned to Yue. He sounded honestly surprised. Yue did not respond.

_Granted, Yue even wanting this kind of thing is probably enough to traumatize me already._ Touya finished the bun, chewing on it so that he was unable to comment. He used to really like this type of bun, it was from the store down at the mall called Monk's Cuisine. The name was as ridiculous as it goes but the food is great. Right now he barely tasted the thing though.

" Well the longer the kid waits the less likely it is to be Eriol." Kero shrugged. " And the less likely it is to be Park either. Probably things will work out."

After the earlier fiasco, however, Kero's words of comfort hardly did any comforting. Instead of replying, Yue transformed into Yukito, who took his lunchbag from Touya a little more moodily than usual.

" Aw come on," Kero hovered over Yukito as the other boy ate, " I'm not trying to be a killjoy or anything, but I wasn't sure what got into you, that's all. That little pep talk you gave the kid came out of nowhere. I thought you lost your mind or something."

Touya snorted. Indeed, _that _would make Yue feel tons better.

" But you know, it's not like you gave the kid any reason to believe you're willing to take him. You never really spent any time with him after that. I mean sure, we all went as a group, but that's hardly going to help him make up his mind."

Yukito paused, chewing thoughtfully and pushing his glasses up with his knuckles because his fingers were greasy.

" Well I'm off." Kero yawned. " Now that your otou-san knows about me I get to eat all the desserts I want."

Touya raised an eyebrow, wondering if it was possible for the guardian to gain weight. Then again, with the amount of food Yukito ate over the years the boy still remained rather slight.

_Lucky bastards._

Kero was flying over the fence. Touya glanced at Yukito, who had stopped eating and was staring at Kero's retreating form silently.

oO

Li Nezha had left in the morning after Syaoran woke, but in the evening he returned, bringing him his prized phoenix to lift Syaoran's spirits. The two boys had headed out to the back yard where Nezha convinced Syaoran to see what he could do to make the phoenix sing. When Touya and Yukito headed back, the mosquitos were buzzing but it seemed Nezha had already raised a barrier that prevented either boy from being bitten.

Nakuru was in the kitchen while Fujitaka was upstairs making his notes for the lectures. Touya could not say for sure, but he never thought Nakuru would be the housewife type. He thought his life simply could not get weirder.

Yukito thought the same thing.

" Nakuru-chan," The boy pushed his glasses up his nose, " What are you doing here?"

" Don't I have as much a right as you do?"

" Well,"

Touya folded his arms and leaned against the counter, looking out the window to see Syaoran and Nezha standing outside in the back yard.

" He's in good hands." Nakuru told him while flipping the fish over the cooker. " And I'm keeping an eye on him."

Touya and Yukito studied Nakuru's cooking methods to determine if they should even attempt to eat dinner later.

Suddenly Nakuru whirled around on them. The fish sizzled. " What are you two just standing there for? I feel like a housewife! And this isn't even my house!"

That sparked the two of them into action. Touya took to the cutting board and Yukito took over the rice. Satisfied, Nakuru tossed the cooker with the fish a little before turning off the flame.

The boys had to admit at least the fish did smell good.

" Is Spinel-san here?" Touya asked Nakuru, a little cautiously. She seemed to be unusually grouchy.

" Iie." Nakuru scraped some of the ginger into the fish plate. " He's with Eriol-sama." Packing to leave, probably.

" Sakura not home yet?" Yukito asked.

" Iie."

There was a loud yell from the outside. Nezha was laughing and Syaoran was hidden in the grass where he fell.

" Boys." Nakuru muttered.

Touya sighed, taking another moment to realize that everyone except him had magic. Even the crazy transfer girl Nakuru.

" You okay?" Yukito asked Touya. Touya nodded, deciding he did not really care. Magic appeared to bring more trouble than good.

" Kid give you an answer yet?" Nakuru suddenly asked Yukito. " It hasn't been long but time's running short here. If he wants to come with Eriol-sama, that is."

" Iie." Yukito replied rather neutrally.

" Why do you suddenly care for the kid anyway?"

Touya snuck a glance at Yukito. He was wondering the same thing.

" I always cared for the kid."

" You know what I mean." Nakuru smacked him. " And I know Yue is perfectly capable of answering."

" Well you could have addressed Yue," Yukito rubbed his shoulder where she smacked him. " And ow, that hurt."

" Don't be a wuss." But Nakuru was laughing.

Yukito took the plate with the fish and brought it to the table.

" I think it started with the firespeakers." Yukito told Nakuru a little practically. When Nakuru raised an eyebrow the boy shrugged. " He's not talking."

" Fair enough."

" What do you mean, the firespeakers?" Touya asked.

" Well, what Yue said the other night was true, sort of. He didn't like Syaoran at first. He thought the boy was obnoxious and arrogant."

" With good reason." Touya shrugged.

" But I always thought, you know, kid's ten years old, got a rich family. I mean, it's unfortunate that he's obnoxious, but at least he had a good heart. Give him a break, we're seven years older than he was, and granted none of us are perfect you know? Especially since afterwards it was sort of obvious he wasn't really so much arrogant as just really really shy. You know how people often confuse shyness with pride."

" Well, yeah," Touya admitted, starting to feel bad about how he treated Syaoran in the past.

" Not to mention, as I said, he was young. He's just a kid. You can't expect kids to be wise and all-knowing, you know, and Syaoran was already considerate enough. That time with the Dash Card, Sakura never knew he used the Dash Card to help her friend win. And by the way, don't tell her." Yukito took a napkin from the table to wipe his hands. " So when I realized Yue was around it always struck me odd how a being that's several thousand years old isn't too tolerant of a ten-year-old, you know? Granted, he wasn't so perfect with Sakura either, at first, and you can claim Yue's not sentimental all you want, but if Clow's such a perfect master that Yue made him out to be you'd think he'd…well now I think I'm making him feel lousy."

" You think?" Touya cocked an eyebrow. But if anyone was going to be harshly blunt with Yue, he supposed it was either him or Yukito. And frankly Yukito was probably the better choice.

Yukito glared. It was nowhere near Yue's glare, and it looked odd on the normally passive and friendly boy, but Touya had seen Yukito annoyed before and was not surprised.

" It was that day when he had to choose between Sakura and Syaoran." Yukito folded his arms and sat down. Nakuru leaned against the wall while Touya sat on the table. " It probably would not have made a difference, but I guess there was some kind of paradigm shift. Think he suddenly realized that even as Sakura's guardian, he ought to protect Syaoran as well, and it was not fair to Syaoran if he chose Sakura for being his master since Syaoran was not only Clow's descendant but Sakura's friend. And you know how Clow had a Chinese mother. The Chinese have plots within plots, and a lot of things they say and do have a second meaning behind them." Yukito pushed his glasses up his nose. He has been doing that a lot lately. " And when Syaoran went to tackle the firespeakers himself, that was sort of saying that he did not trust Yue to protect him." Yukito shrugged. " And Yue feels he should. And I agree."

" Well last minute decisions rarely have time for secondary meanings." Nakuru frowned. " I doubt Syaoran distrusted Yue so much. I think it was merely he wanted to save Sakura. He valued Sakura's life more than his own."

" Hai, and as commendable as that is," Yukito pointed out, " This is not something we should have encouraged in an eleven-year-old, you know. The only reason we find that very nice is because Sakura mattered more to us than Syaoran. If it had been the other way around, I mean, look at Touya." Touya's heart plummeted when he was suddenly dragged into this. " When he told Yue to look after Sakura, he wasn't all that delighted when Yue promised to give his life for her. It's because Touya cared as much for Yue as he did for his sister. So with Syaoran, we were okay with it because he didn't matter to us that much."

" Now you're making _me _feel lousy." Nakuru groaned. " Well we can't say Syaoran doesn't matter now, can we? He's a freaking thunderspeaker."

" He's a good kid." Yukito held his forehead in his hands. " And someone should care for him for a change. There are a lot of things that make him very kawaii. I think Yue would be happy taking care of him. I mean, Yue honestly really wants to. He has grown to be fond of him. And I'm hearing a lot of protests in my head."

Nakuru made a thoughtful sound. " So it was for your conscience, Yue-chan, that you suddenly developed this affection for the child. I can take that. Not to mention," She leaned over to whisper in Touya's ear, " He's not as unsentimental as he thinks he is."

Touya agreed.

" Tadaima!" Sakura called. " Syaoran-kun?"

Fujitaka called something from upstairs, but did not come down.

" He's out in the yard." Nakuru told her.

" Oh. Konbonwa, Nakuru-san. I didn't know you were here."

Nakuru shrugged. " I'll call the boys in. Daidouji-san is not here?"

" Iie, came home alone today. Lots of catching up to do, and the practice took longer than usual." Sakura threw a worried glance out the window. " Is Syaoran-kun alright? I had to explain to the soccer coach since I guess Otou-san's call didn't reach him."

" Seems fine. Thoroughly distracted by the Trickster God."

" Hm."

Nakuru's voice resonated as she called the two boys. Nataku-kotaishi gave Syaoran a brief hug and said something to him. Then the god disappeared. Syaoran entered the house alone.

The boy was actually smiling a little as he looked at everyone, but while Sakura returned it with an even brighter smile, none of the others were able to really do the same.


	24. Chapter 24

Song of Thunder

Chapter 24

Spinel Sun watched Eriol as the sorcerer packed. The magician had plenty of trinkets he brought to Japan that he had to take back. The house was a mess, with everything displayed in the open and barely enough room to walk around in. For much of the time the two of them were silent, with the only sounds being that of Eriol putting things in boxes.

The phone rang, and Eriol did not wait for Spinel to pick it up. " Ichiro!"

Spinel flicked his ears forward.

" Eriol," Ichiro's voice was rather loud, " Is the kid better?"

" Hai, very much so, just as we expected." Eriol grinned, " Physically at least, but I think mentally as well."

Spinel looked down. Ichiro was the one to locate where the firespeakers were and where Sakura was headed, warning about the meteor shower and the lengths the firespeakers would go, but before Syaoran woke Ichiro suddenly said he had to go. Eriol had suspected it might have something to do with his demolished house, but until now it was never confirmed.

" How goes the house?" Eriol asked lightly. " Almost finished?"

" The house?" Ichiro paused. " I was not working on the house. I was called to inspect a new occurrence. We're not out of bad news yet."

Eriol froze. " What do you mean?"

" It's not that terrible, I think," Ichiro went on, " They were afraid it was serious but I think it was just a small stir in response to what happened."

" Would it affect my descendant."

" I doubt it. They were never interested in the elementals in the past."

" Who are 'they'." Eriol was getting annoyed. " What happened? Just tell me."

Ichiro's voice had lowered so that even Spinel's keen hearing could not pick out the words. Eriol looked slightly troubled at first, not really commenting, but towards the end he relaxed a little.

" I think it is fine. I do not think it is anything to really worry about, and he is in more than capable hands." Spinel looked up curiously at that. " But thank you for telling me. If you need help on that house…sure. No problem. Thanks a lot Ichiro." Eriol said good-bye and hung up.

" Something wrong?" Spinel asked.

" Nothing really big." Eriol replied easily. " Nothing we need to worry about for now."

The house was silent once more, though Eriol whistled a little to himself as he packed. Spinel turned over what Eriol had said in his head. Either Eriol was really tired of worrying about things, or this was really not something to be worried about. Knowing Eriol, he was probably telling Spinel to drop it while considering the issue in private. Actually, that was what the sorcerer always did, and Spinel frowned. Well, if he is that way, the guardian will not trouble himself for it. 

" You know," Spinel suddenly broke the quiet, " You're not really encouraging him, what with you in a hurry to go to England."

" Well," Eriol replied easily, knowing perfectly well who 'he' was, " I did delay my trip for his sake. I really must get back. Not to mention I know he won't choose me anyway."

" That why you made the offer?"

Eriol, who had been crouching, straightened and cracked the joints in his back. " Ouch. No. I made the offer because I meant it. But I am leaving because he won't choose to stay with me. It would be awkward for him and he knows it. In addition, I really am not the best option either way."

He got back to work for a while.

" You don't seem that disappointed." Spinel noted.

" I have a feeling we will keep in touch quite often." Eriol smiled at him. " I have a feeling that at least one person will kill me if we don't."

" Who, Park? Yue?" Spinel scowled skeptically, scrunching up his cat face in an odd manner.

" Oh no." Eriol grinned, his glasses flashing in the sunlight. " Be reasonable. Of course not Park or Yue. I was referring to Li Nezha."

oO

Syaoran requested another sick day, promising Fujitaka he would be out of his hair by the third. Fujitaka assured the boy that he could take sick days for as long as he wanted. Though the man was too prudent to mention it, Touya knew Fujitaka was recalling the days when Nadeshiko was killed, and Touya had to take a whole week off to mourn. It normally would not have happened, and in fact Touya never called in sick, but the boy had merely skipped school.

Not a great way to get into a decent middle school, but a great way to get to know the new student Tsukishiro Yukito. And being the mild-mannered man he was Fujitaka could understand afterwards when Touya confessed his deed that Touya needed to grieve. Happy-go-lucky teachers and bratty classmates were not really the ideal crowd to be in when one is mourning.

Or maybe Fujitaka was depressed enough to understand that he really hated teaching at the university when such a tragedy occurred, so he could hardly expect his seven-year-old son to love being taught at that period.

In either case Syaoran got another day off.

Prince Nezha visited again. He convinced Syaoran to head outside, perhaps because the house was too stuffy, and they were in the Penguin Park.

" Do not expect this to be a regular occurrence." Syaoran was not really paying attention to him since the prince was holding a cigar. One that was lit. Nezha never actually brought it to his lips, and in fact was holding the stick rather cautiously, but the smoke was unavoidable.

" Why are you holding that?" Syaoran asked, feeling like he was going to start coughing any minute.

" Karma." Nezha appeared to think for a moment. " You know what, let me let this thing burn out before I continue talking to you."

" Uh…why don't you just throw it away?"

" If only things were that simple!" Nezha sighed dramatically, before disappearing with a puff. Syaoran wondered if things could get any more odd.

Nezha did serve to help brighten his mood. Syaoran felt almost optimistic about his future. It still remained to be seen who to go with, and he actually found himself siding with Yue a little more. At least, he felt very comfortable with Yukito yesterday, which reminded him that if he chose Yue half the time at least he would be dealing with Yukito and not the guardian.

Even if Yue would hear everything he said, which meant there was no talking behind his back to Yukito. Which was kind of a downer.

At least he had choices, he thought ruefully, where before he had none.

An ominous wind suddenly broke him out of his thoughts. Syaoran tensed, looking around and listening carefully. He did not want a repeat of last time when he had been caught off guard. He wondered if it was just Nezha playing up to his name, being the Trickster God and all.

But the aura in the wind that blew again was not the boy god's. It felt alien and dark and morbid. Syaoran froze for a minute, debating. Was it really wise to just stand there and wait for whatever it was to come to him? Should he run?

Heck, he should run. Syaoran took off. Yukito's house was a bit closer than Touya's, and he headed in that direction instead. The wind that pushed him forward was normal wind, but he could sense the dark energy not far behind him.

The welcome sight of the Tsukishiro house loomed before his eyes. Syaoran put forth a new burst of speed, but to his horror so did the dark magic. It was gaining on him—he desperately reached out, and having no other option, called out, " Yue!!"

oO

The elementals were all gathered on the Galapagos Islands. It was not the most ideal place to meet, since they were discussing political affairs and what to do with the rest of the firespeakers. Matt was deeply involved, cursing as he always did, but Chul was distracted and kept staring off into the ocean. The iguanas scuttled between the elementals as if they were not there. It was not very proper for the Water Lord to be so unfocused, but Chul did not care, and no one cared to risk their necks to tell him otherwise.

He was wondering how to convince the boy. Syaoran still treated him with a bit of reserve, at the very least. He would need to prove to the child he really cared for him. But there was not enough time.

A sudden feeling of dread crossed his heart, and he stiffened, alarmed. What was that? Was that Syaoran? Was he in trouble?

And then he recognized it.

_Mide…_ His mood darkened further as he recollected the being who owned the aura. He must have sensed a fresh killing opportunity.

Ritsuko glanced his way, somewhat exasperated that Chul was behaving so immaturely, but Chul suddenly puffed into vapor. Alarmed, everyone glanced in his direction as the cloud sailed away at a speed that defied any natural law.

" Chul!" Ritsuko yelled, " What the hell are you doing?"

" Hold it!" Matt grabbed her arm and swore. " Something's happened to the boy!"

oO

Yue was a good choice, because if it had been Yukito undoubtedly Syaoran would have been caught. As it was, Yue appeared far faster than Syaoran could ever hope for and swooped the boy in his arms before taking off into the air. Syaoran screamed in surprise, and then in alarm as the dark magic curled upwards as well.

The guardian's quiet nature played to their fortune, for Yue asked no questions. Syaoran reached over his shoulder to fire a lightning bolt at the dark shadow, but to his horror nothing appeared in his hand.

" Nani?" Syaoran gasped, wondering if his core had somehow burnt out again. But he was just flickering yesterday!

Yue made a sharp dive and Syaoran yelled in surprise. The black shadow was huge now, and it dove down right after them. Yue seemed to sense it, and did not turn around to attack.

Syaoran squeezed his eyes as the ground rose to meet them. _Yue's a good flyer, Yue's a good flyer we are _not _crashing–_

Yue swooped horizontally at the last minute. It was a wonder, actually, that there were no cars and no people out in the street. The dark magic must have driven them away somehow, and as little sense as that made it was all Yue had time for. Syaoran clung tightly around his neck, nearly choking him. Yue pressed Syaoran's head against him to support his neck so it would not snap from the momentum of his dives. Syaoran was starting to get sick, but Yue's tricks were what prevented the shadow from catching hold of them. He just prayed that Yue could keep this up.

Actually, from the feeling of it, it seemed Yue could keep this up for as long as he had to.

He just hoped it would be over soon.

oO

" Of course not." Eriol was telling Spinel. " Kaho-chan will go insane. Not to mention her family."

" You could always, I don't know, _explain."_

" You don't understand," Eriol began, then stopped for a full ten seconds. " Oh...crud..." he suddenly jerked around. Spinel's sensitive ears heard a crack and saw Eriol reach for his neck with a wince, but the sorcerer did not slow down.

" Spinel, up!" Eriol yelled as he flung open the front door. As much as Spinel resented being ordered around that way, something bad did seem to just happen.

" What is it?"

" Crud!" Eriol swore, " Hurry up! It's Syaoran!"

Outside the air had turned bitter and grimy, like something had polluted it. Eriol ran for all he was worth, Spinel transformed into his panther form and flying above him.

A bright golden light streaked across the sky. It disappeared over the trees, but there was a loud roaring noise that was unmistakably inhuman. The light rebounded back. Eriol looked up and saw Nezha, clad in his usual attire and his red chou fluttering behind him as he basically fell from the sky. Eriol yelled in surprise as he was suddenly surrounded in a burst of flames. When they died down he had been transported to the spot right behind the dark magic...only this time it was no longer mere darkness. Nezha hovered above him.

" Nani?" Nezha stared. " Who on earth are you?"

_Hm. _Eriol decided. _Not good._

It was a man, a very tall man, who seemed to be in his late thirties. He wore long black robes and his hair was dark brown. He had a strong jaw and dark, slightly tanned skin. His eyes were small under bushy eyebrows and a high nose stood between them. He was actually quite regal. Kind of like Syaoran.

Eriol suddenly swore again.

" Dad?" Syaoran stared, otherwise dumbfounded by this turn of events. He did not reach for his father, instead hugging on to Yue stupidly for about five seconds. Then as he finally did reach for the stranger, Yue grabbed hold of his upper body and pressed him back. Just because the child was willing to believe it did not mean the man really was his father.

Although Eriol could have been fooled. Syaoran was basically the exact replica of his father, almost. The eyes were different though, his father's were more brown. Still, this man could be anyone.

" What are you chasing him for?" Eriol asked calmly. " You seemed to care quite a bit less over the past eight years."

" As if you cared any more." The man replied. A misty vortex landed on the ground next to Eriol and Chul appeared.

" Lee Senyan." The Water Lord sneered. " What a pleasant surprise. You've never taken an interest in elementals quite this much in the past."

" I suppose," Nezha muttered, hovering lower to the ground so that he was on Eriol's other side, " That it does not reflect well that I do not have a clue who this man is."

" Nope. It doesn't." Spinel replied lightly.

" I thought you were dead!" Syaoran started shaking. His face was as pale as sheet and sweat was beginning to mat his forehead. " They told me you were dead..." Yue held him close, his face guarded, as if that would help Syaoran.

" You two met?" Chul blinked, letting down his facade to reveal some of his confusion.

" Of course we have, haven't we, my son." Lee smirked at Syaoran, who looked like he was either going to faint or burst into tears.

" Wait a minute." Nezha stopped. " Oh blast it. What the hell have the other deities been doing? You are his father?"

" You married into the Li clan?" Chul was just as baffled. " _You _got past their defenses and had four daughters and a son with the matriarch of the _Li clan?!"_

" I only sired the son, not the wenches." Lee replied harshly, " And is it a wonder that I wish to see my son, now that he is in need of my care?"

" Can someone please tell me who this Lee Senyan is?" Nezha demanded.

Syaoran could not take this anymore. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fainted. Yue partially covered his body with one of his wings, ready to take off if necessary, but he was not as tense because of the current reinforcements he had.

" You don't know who this guy is?" Chul glared at Nezha. " That's hardly surprising. You didn't even sense the boy when he was in his lightning form. Allow me to enlighten you. This is the so called Lord of Shadowmasters. A conniving fiend and son of a–"

" Ah ah," Lee held up a hand, " I know you have grown fond of my son. Best not insult him, hm?"

" Oh, he is currently unconscious right now because he just found out his father is a bastard and abandoned him for eight years. I doubt he'll hear me."

" Shadowmaster?" Nezha shook his head in disbelief. The god looked floored. " There are Chinese Shadowmasters? And what the hell is a Shadowmaster doing on this side of the globe?"

" You intend on keeping him from me?" Lee's voice grew dark with anger and his aura flared. Chul's flared in return, and Eriol suddenly found himself flattened on the ground from the force. When he was able to get to his feet (his breath had been knocked out of him) some sort of stalemate seemed to have been reached. Yue had landed on the ground behind Chul, Syaoran tucked protectively in his arms.

" The infamous Lord of Shadow does not disappoint." Chul remarked grimly.

" You better stay with that boy." Lee sneered. " You stay with him. Because I will be watching. And as soon as he is in the open," he gave Syaoran what could only be described as a hungry look, and faded into black mist that dissipated as well.

Chul turned around and glared at Nezha. " Some help you were!"

Nezha ignored him. " Is he alright?" he asked Yue.

" What do you expect?" Yue pointed out, shifting Syaoran's body so it was closer to him. " Do you expect him to be alright?"

Eriol felt a headache coming up. " I'm never trusting Ichiro's judgment again."

Author's notes: One more chapter to go, and then a sequel, because I love this story so much. Stay tuned. D


	25. Chapter 25

Song of Thunder

Chapter 25

The gate was filled with people, but Chul managed to find two seats for them to sit in. Syaoran did his best not to wallow in self-pity, nor to show how frightened and nervous he was of the whole situation. He was not sure if Chul would be offended if Syaoran was scared.

But he was.

The windows at the airport showed the planes outside, and Syaoran could see them moving one by one, some taking off, some landing on a farther side. No magical transport, since Chul did not want to draw attention at the moment, and Syaoran was fine with that. He was not certain how he would feel if he were to pop into Korea within a second, with no time to recover his bearings. Even if his arrival in Korea was inevitable, at least he was not _there._

Chul was silent through the wait, only speaking when he had to. Syaoran found himself constantly worrying what he had gotten himself into. Well, none of this was his decision. After his father showed up everyone had decided it was too dangerous for him to stay with anyone but Chul, who apparently other than Nezha was the only one capable of fending Lee off. And Nezha was getting duties.

Syaoran closed his eyes and tried to will away his anxiety. He felt like he was stretched thin. He reached inside and felt his magical core burning, but stubbornly dormant. Unable to do anything about it, he tried to occupy his mind elsewhere, anywhere except here, with the Water Lord right next to him and a new life he was not ready for ahead of him.

_" If you have any need, call for us." Yue told him. " If you are scared at all, or simply wish to talk. You may know Korean already thanks to your abilities, but if you do not make friends at first, we are here for you."_

_" I don't like this at all." Sakura complained. " Why can't he stay here?"_

_" This does not make sense." Eriol remarked. " How could he not have fathered his sisters? They thought they had the same father did they not? And he did not go in disguise. The pictures show the exact man."_

_Sakura was holding Syaoran's hand while everyone else packed his things. Syaoran knew he should help out or do something but all he really could do was just sit there. He had been crying earlier, but that he could not help with._

_" How long is he staying in Korea?" Takashi asked._

_" As long as he has to." Chul snapped. " I'm not letting Lee take him."_

_" So until he's no longer in danger?"_

_Chul chose not to answer that._

_" How are you going to protect him?" Sakura demanded. " You can't stay with him twenty-four seven."_

_" He said if you leave him he will take his chance." Yue agreed. " And I do not suppose you know how to find this man otherwise you would be looking for him by now."_

_" What, are you doubting my ability to protect a child?" Chul accused. " I will take what means is necessary."_

_Syaoran did not want to go to Korea._

_" What if," It was the first time he actually spoke, and his voice was hoarse from sobbing. " What if I turn into…into light again?"_

_There was a startled reaction from everyone, including Matt and Chul, but Eriol covered that up by smoothly saying, " Don't. You might not survive the change back this time. Not to mention, he can probably get you as light too._

_Syaoran felt like he would prefer his father killing him then going off with Chul like this._

_" Honey," Ritsuko sat by him, " Korea is a lovely place, trust me. You'll have a grand time there. And if Chul here decides to do anything stupid you tell me and I will give him a good whipping."_

_" I would like to see you try," Chul sniffed, though not vehemently._

_" Oh yeah?" Ritsuko cocked an eyebrow. " May I remind you that your healing skills still need work?"_

_" Hmph!"_

_" The waterspeakers are good folk, Syaoran." Matt agreed. " You'll be happy, I'm sure. And lots of people like to go there to chat with the waterspeakers, mostly marine beings like mermaids. Have you ever seen a mermaid?" It was the longest bit Matt had spoken without cursing, and he broke that trend with an oath in between " They're weird."_

_" We'll take good care of you Syaoran." Ritsuko promised. " Trust us."_

_Syaoran just wished Chul had been the one to say that instead of someone who was not the one taking care of him._

" Are you hungry at all?" Chul broke him out of his thoughts. Syaoran hesitated. Chul's arm was touching his, which meant that the waterspeaker could sense what he was feeling. He discovered that not long before leaving the airport. At first the thought had alarmed him, but in a way it also comforted him to know that the Water Lord was checking up on him.

He nodded.

" Why don't you go buy something." Chul gave him some money. " I'll save our seats and keep an eye on our stuff."

Syaoran went gingerly, feeling almost uncomfortable in his own body. He felt like his coordination was beyond his control. Airport food was expensive. He was afraid of taking too long to look for things, so he went and bought from the first restaurant he saw. Getting four buns, two for himself and two for Chul, he headed back.

Chul seemed startled by the gesture. " Thanks," He slipped into Korean, blinking uncomfortably. Syaoran wondered if he did something wrong. Perhaps he should not have spent so much money?

" What's in it?" Chul asked.

" Pork and cabbage."

" Hm. Not bad." Chul took a bite.

Their arms touching again, Syaoran suddenly sensed Chul's magical presence. The Water Lord had kept the connection blocked, but had relaxed the barriers a bit. Syaoran realized that Chul was checking him again. He was sending light healing magic to soothe him. And the Water Lord was nervous. Very nervous. Almost as nervous as Syaoran.

The notion suddenly made Syaoran relax. It felt good somehow, that they were both new at this, but mostly that Chul was human after all. The Water Lord looked at him questioningly at the change in mood. Syaoran offered no verbal reply.

" When will…" Syaoran hesitated. Chul looked at him. " How come my magic's not…" He fell silent.

Chul gave him a calm look. " You honestly think you'd master it immediately?"

" Well…"

" We were very lucky." Chul replied. " _Very _lucky that you were able to control them earlier. But that usually doesn't happen. My guess is you had help somehow." Chul shrugged. " But now it's our job to train you."

Syaoran blinked. " Train me?"

" Un." Chul took another bite of his bun. " We all had to go through training. You're no exception."

" Will it work though?" Syaoran asked. " I mean, I don't think my magic can heal. Kill, more like. Explode or fry or something. It's not like water, is it?"

" No." Chul agreed. " With you it would be touch and go, I suppose. We'd have to come up with things as we move along. But training you'll need, and help in case something goes wrong. The latter we can definitely provide. And the supervision."

Syaoran chewed thoughtfully.

" You'll meet a bunch of other queer people along the way." Chul added. " I know there are unicorns also, in China, but I don't think they're so far south."

" Unicorns!" Syaoran hushed his voice when he realized he nearly shouted it. Embarrassed, he looked at Chul nervously, but Chul's face was as close to a smile as it had ever gotten.

" Elves too. They come once every year." He did not say why. " And some wizards and other odd folk."

" Oh." Syaoran blinked. Chul grumbled a little to himself. " Huh?"

" Nothing." Chul waved it off. " Just that I remembered. I've been neglecting some of my things."

" What things?"

" I'm the Chair of the Council." Chul explained.

Syaoran stared at him. " There's a council?"

" Oh yeah." Chul scowled. " Your family's not into that, I remember now."

" What's the council like?"

" I expect you'd be expected to attend them every year eventually." Chul replied wryly. " It's a get together. Early on, I expect you'll meet many your age."

" Will Sakura also attend?"

" If she wants. Clow's people usually don't attend. I think he found them very boring." Chul's expression clearly said he understood why. " But everyone gets together. It's sort of like…a UN for magical beings."

" I thought those only exist in Harry Potter!"

" Harry Potter?"

" I don't know." Syaoran remarked honestly. " I never read it. But Takashi-san said it was some British children's novel."

" Well," Chul pointed out, " Things would be a mess if there were no council, wouldn't they. Just because your precious Card Mistress managed to handle her very controlled mess on her own doesn't mean everything works out all neat and tidy like they do in Japan."

Syaoran rubbed the back of his head. " What do you do as Chair?" He asked.

" I just sit there and keep order." Chul sniffed. " Honestly, it should be Matt, but I'm better at keeping up appearances and intimidating people than he is."

Syaoran laughed softly. " He curses too much doesn't he?" He was feeling much more at ease now.

Chul elbowed him lightly. " No comment. He's a vice chair."

" What do they do?"

" Nothing. They are responsible for keeping their elements in order." Chul replied. " I ought to be vice chair for the waterspeakers, but I'm more powerful than anyone there so the spot was handed to me." He managed not to sound audacious when he said that.

" Oh." Syaoran mused._ " _It meets once every year?"

" Yeah."

" Did it meet already?" Syaoran asked.

" Yeah, in the spring. They make a big to do about it. You have to wear proper attire."

Syaoran stared. " What do you mean by proper attire?"

" You don't know?" Chul blinked. " Didn't that Nezha brat tell you?"

The announcer suddenly spoke over the loud noises. " For Flight 522698 to Incheon, please proceed to gate 5! Flight 522698 to Incheon, please proceed to gate 5!"

Chul rose and Syaoran followed. The two headed toward the gate with their boarding passes. Syaoran felt nervous again, as they walked down the makeshift hall to the doors of the airplane. It was not a long flight to Korea, and soon he will be in the city, and then heading toward the waterspeaker's village.

It all felt very surreal. But there is no going back now. There was never any going back.

They shifted their luggage up to the cabinets above them. Syaoran could not reach, so Chul let him sit first to clear up the aisle.

" Oh wow." He remarked when he did sit down next to Syaoran. " They have televisions on these."

" Probably charge a fee."

" Want to watch though?"

Syaoran shook his head. He was too nervous and not really in the mood.

" Well you get the window seat." Chul pointed out.

Syaoran looked out the window to the airport, seeing the various planes next to his.

_" I have school!" Sakura cried. " I won't be able to see you off!"_

_" You'll write to us yeah?" Kero fluttered to his face. " You better. Otherwise I will kick your—"_

_" Kerberus!" Yukito snapped. " Are you learning from Matt?"_

_" I wasn't about to curse!"_

_" Call often!" Sakura told him, giving him a warm hug. " And don't forget me."_

_Syaoran wondered how on earth she could think that, but did not answer. He had been too nervous._

_" Remember, we're here for you." Yukito gave him a hug as well. " You can always come back here once the opportunity arises. Or you can go to England."_

_" Kami-sama, gaki," Touya grinned, " You've got a home all over the world now."_

_Syaoran stared at him speechlessly._

_" You'll be fine." Ritsuko assured him. " Now I'll be off. I need to hurry back before you guys. See ya Chul."_

_Syaoran watched as she disappeared, almost wishing she were the one riding the airplane with him._

_" And once you get that lightning trick down visit me!" Sakura squeezed his hands affectionately, and Syaoran found he could not squeeze back. He was too anxious and scared. Sakura did not mind. " Safe flight!" She looked like she wanted to say something else, but stopped herself. Syaoran was too preoccupied to really pay attention._

_" Come on," Yamazaki tapped him, " And when you get back you owe me a meal. This just in case you forget about me."_

_" Ugh, you kids. He won't forget about you, alright?" Chul rolled his eyes. " I get the feeling you kids will harass him too much for my tastes."_

_" Yeah, and you got a problem with that?" Sakura glared at him._

_Chul rolled his eyes again._

Not the most bittersweet of partings, but Syaoran felt a calm settle over his heart. Chul was touching his arm again, sending soothing waves. Syaoran did not outwardly respond, but he sent a blast of chi in response to communicate his gratitude.

About forty minutes later the plane took off to the skies. Chul looked out from Syaoran's window with Syaoran. The thunderspeaker let himself be hypnotized by the floating clouds, anchored by Chul's caring touch on his arm and the soothing magic.

Maybe things will not be so bad after all.

Author's Notes: Stay tuned for Shadowdance! Syaoran's father is a Shadowmaster, and Chul's encountered them before and knows what they can do. He fears for Syaoran's safety and soul and will do anything to protect his young charge. Meanwhile, Syaoran learns there is more to Chul than he realized, both good and bad. This story got over 100 reviews! That's awesome! Thanks everyone!


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